Mobile group messaging is on fire!! Is this the end of email?

Email is/was the de facto way to send and receive photos, videos, files, or contacts.

But now, mobile messaging allows us to send way more than text, but all of the above AND other great things like location and coming soon, presence.

And it’s hot!  As Skype has just acquired group messaging service GroupMe, which will enhance Skype’s ability to facilitate text and photo messaging.  It highlights how important the mobile group messaging space has become.

The group messaging space is smoking with all the activity that has taken place recently including Google’s purchase of Slide, Facebook’s  Group Chat launch with acquisition of Beluga , and Apple’s announcement of  iMessage.

So, what are mobile operators doing to get into this mobile group messaging game?  Lots.  The Rich Communications Ecosystem (RCE) initiative is completely on the right track and will offer competitive features and capabilities with the added advantage of being based on consumer existing mobile number.  Question is, can it be done quickly enough?  Consumers will gravitate to these new, currently available offerings from the OTT players and it may be difficult to bring them back. 

In spite of the fact that the operator’s messaging service is under attack from those OTT players, operators can deploy their own Mobile Cloud-based messaging services to provide a more compelling user experience while protecting their service domain and revenues.   Mobile operators must meet the growing demands of subscribers for these advanced communications services and help to combat the increased competition that is eroding minutes, revenue and subscriber mindshare.

RCE delivers a simplified extension to voice and text, enabling subscribers to send instant messages, video chat, and image/video share and transfer/exchange files in real time.   The chat is based solely on the mobile number and can be on the device as a native client – no sign up, no download.

So, regardless of what happens to email, mobile group messaging is the hot ticket right now!