It was just a few days ago that I said Google's messaging strategy was a mess. In a statement published by Google overnight, the company has put Allo, the messaging platform they launched just a couple of years ago, on the chopping block declaring it will stop working next March. It's yet another software thought balloon floated by Google and then pricked into oblivion.

Google's history with messaging services has been a mess. And just when it seemed it was kind of getting its act together, the search giant has once again invited Mr Cock-Up to visit and make life more confusing for users. Hangouts for consumers is disappearing and there doesn't seem to be a clear plan for what's next. It's like the company didn't learn anything from the time it killed Google Reader.

How many people out there are still using AOL Mail? I assumed it was all of three people, but apparently there’s still a considerable number of you clinging to your aol.com accounts.

Do you hope AOL will make a grand resurgence one day? Are you nostalgic for the sounds of a dial-up modem? Do you hate Gmail? You can move providers; it’ll be OK.

If you have a popular name combination, or just get a lot of email at work, you're bound to get an email that wasn't intended for you. You could ignore it, sure, but there are better ways to handle it.

AIM, a pioneer in the world of online messaging, is shutting down after 20 years. The service will officially shutter on December 15, with no plans for an official replacement from Oath, the Verizon-owned company that includes both America Online and Yahoo.

If you weren't swayed to incinerate your smart devices and encourage your family to go full Ron Swanson after recent reports on potential child-spying Disney apps, a damning examination of the wildly-popular Kik Messenger app may convince you to ready the blowtorch.

In honour of Skype's newest update, the video chat and messaging app is dropping support for a variety of platforms.

Team messaging application Slack is upping the ante in the battle of the collaboration platforms. With Slack, HipChat and Microsoft Teams all battling it out to master the collaboration game, Slack has added the ability to time limit guest access to chats and adding some extra information so you know more about guests.

A few months ago, Facebook announced its plans to start showing ads in Messenger. Now, we have a glimpse at what they will look like. They're huge and obnoxious. The moral of the story: Never message brands.

Android/iOS: It's way easier to send a quick message to someone than write a long email. Why can't email be like messaging? Hop thinks it can, turning your emails into chat-style conversations you can reply to quickly.

WhatsApp is one of the most popular private messaging apps out there, so it's a little surprising it didn't have support for two-step authentication. Now, the beta version of the app has added the feature so, like always, turn it on now.

Earlier this year, Facebook announced it was building bots that would let companies chat with you in Messenger. Now, the company has announced sponsored messages. They're like ads, but for your chat app.

The end-to-end message encryption Facebook promised to Messenger users back in July has finally finished rolling out to everyone. Here's how to enable it.

Android: Facebook's mobile apps are notorious for hogging battery life and resources. So, you'd probably love a stripped down Messenger app that was only 10MB, right? Well, it exists, but most countries can't use it yet.

Google just launched Allo, a new smart messaging app that comes with stickers, emoji and a powerful assistant who can answer all your questions. Let's take a look at its biggest features, and see if it's worth moving all your conversations over to it.

Android/iOS: Today, Google's rolling out Allo, the messaging app it previewed at I/O earlier this summer. This is also the first real glimpse we get into the new Google Assistant.

When you send a text message to someone else, there's a long, complicated path from your phone to theirs. If you've ever wondered just how that network works, this video breaks it down.

Today, Google dropped a news clusterbomb, launching Android VR, a new Google Assistant and an Amazon Echo-like Google Home hub. Here's all the coolest stuff from today's keynote.

Android (5.0+): With Android N, you can finally reply to notifications directly from the shade, but most users don't have N yet. For those on Lollipop or above, QuickReply emulates that same feature for most notifications.