The news that Facebook is working on encrypting end-to-end communication in its chat client is another sign that messaging is the next major battleground online. Facebook also is also working for SnapChat style 'self destructing' messages, and the rise of messaging bots allows third-party developers to deliver solutions inside the chat environment.
End-to-end encryption is increasingly being seen as a desirable product for many users of IM platforms, and the addition of this feature should be seen as Facebook emphatically planting a flag to say 'we are here in this space and we plan to dominate it'.
It's important to realise that the messaging clients on desk-bound computers and (especially) on mobile are more than people talking to each other. It is seen by many as 'the next platform' for growth and development of the market. In Facebook's case it allows it to reach across operating systems and devices and to be the fabric that joins everything together - with Mark Zuckerberg's empire at the centre. If you can provide a route between the users and the developers, you have a platform. And if you have the platform you have far more impact on the future direction of the whole industry.
That's why Facebook has been leaning heavily on Messenger for many years, spinning it out as a separate mobile app, and ensuring it is well placed to be that new platform. The size of Facebook gives it an edge over almost every other IM client.
The exception is Apple. Apple spent a significant amount of stage time at its recent Worldwide Developers Conference to show off the new features of Messages. On the surface ideas like 'triple-sized' emoji, spoiler-tagged messages you scrub away, and different font sizes were all a bit of light fluff. For many younger members of the geekerati it said something else. It said that Apple was focusing on iMessage as a platform, and it would be kept as relevant and on-message as possible.
Then there's the ability for developers to tap into Messages through a new SDK and add functionality. That could be calling an Uber from Messages, adding stickers to messages, transferring money to a friend (with Apple Pay), or whatever the developer community can come up with.
Apple noted at WWDC that Messages is one of the most frequently used apps on iOS. There are no exact public numbers, but with a billion active devices, Apple has a significant presence in the market and has the drive to challenge Facebook and the third-party messaging apps - although its cross-platform ambitions are restricted to Apple's own ecosystem of devices.
The curious question in all of this is what Google is planning. Although it has a suitable platform in Google Hangouts - which is part of the Google Play package and can be found on virtually every Android device - the hunger that is being exhibited by the competition. Given Hangouts mission is to be seen as the default application for text messaging and telephony n Android, it's perhaps not as focused on becoming a 'platform' when compared to the competition. And if it was, the interaction by Google of a new messaging app (Allo) and Duo (video calling), neither of which are replacing Hangouts.
I'd expect Google to fully join this battle in the near future, but in the meantime Facebook and Apple are going to be leading the consumer push on messaging as a platform. The third-party clients such as WhatsApp, SnapChat, Cola, Telegram and Signal continue to impact the messaging ecosystem, but the focus of Facebook and Apple on will define this ecosystem as 'the next big thing' to the public.
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