Google to allegedly rebrand and unify chat services under ‘Babble’

Google allegedly plans to re-brand and unify its various chat services, like Google Talk, Hangout, Voice, Messenger, Chat for Drive, etc., under the new name “Babble”.

According to a Monday report by Geek.com, which cited “multiple sources reporting separately,” Google is developing a cross platform solution to compete with iMessage and BlackBerry Messenger. The solution is being buit “fresh from the ground up,” and it will come with an Android and Chrome OS app and sport the moniker “Babble”.

Geek.com has the story:

Babble continues Google’s trend towards organization by conversation. You can share photos in chat windows just like you would in G+ Messenger, start a Hangout with anyone in your contact list, and the conversations are threaded across all the existing services. Moving forward, the individual services will all be pushed onto the single platform, and you’ll be able to use the same chat window across all of Google’s products with the same features available everywhere. It’s not so much releasing a new product as it is pulling together all of the existing products under a single branding.

The report does not confirm any of its claims and neglects to even slap a release timeframe on the rumor, but it said to expect an unveiling presentation at Google I/O 2013.

Lets hope, if Google does indeed showcase the service in May, that it develops a better name in the meantime. Unless, of course, Google intends to go biblical with its language-confounding Tower of Babel Babble reference.