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KitKat to drop Messaging app, integrate SMS and MMS into Hangouts?

Android Police has screenshots suggesting that both SMS and MMS messaging are being integrated into Google Hangouts, with the standalone Messaging app likely to be dropped from KitKat (Android 4.4) – first on Nexus devices and later on others.

The screenshots claim to be from Hangouts 1.3. It’s just speculation that this will ship with KitKat – it’s possible that it may be released before or after. We have recently seen claimed screenshots of KitKat that include the Messaging app, but that isn’t inconsistent with the idea that it would be dropped from the Nexus first … 

The piece includes a cure series of graphics showing the progression of integrated messaging on Android, from the pre-Hangout days:

through now:

to what we may see in KitKat:

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