Google is finally saying goodbye to Allo today

Google Allo’s day of reckoning is finally here. Google said back in December that the messaging service would be shut down at some point in March, and a banner across the official Allo website has confirmed that today, March 12th, 2019, will be its last day in operation. If you haven’t already, back up your chat history, and wave goodbye to Google’s latest failed chat service.

Unfortunately, Allo’s successor isn’t quite ready yet. Yes, Google brought some of its features (such as smart replies and desktop support) into Android’s Messaging app. But in order to get features like group messaging, your carrier will need to start supporting RCS, the successor to SMS that’s been a long time coming.

RCS is getting there, slowly, but it’s still got a long way to go. Verizon launched RCS support for the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL back in December, and Google enabled support for Google Fi back in January for a broader range of phones. It’s far from universal, but now that Google is focused on just a single messaging app, it has a better chance of gaining some momentum.