Load the Game

Google purchased Emu, the Siri-like mobile app

• Egon Kilin
• August 6th, 2014

Google purchased a new messaging application called Emu, a former IM Client that stood out in the market due to its smart features. Emu was released as a beta earlier this year and was often compared to Siri, the virtual assistant that automates tasks based on conversations. The similarities between these two go even further, considering you can schedule meetings, set reminders or even make reservations through conversation with both apps. The fact that the brain behind Emu is Gummi Hafsteinsson, known to be an ex-worker at both Google and Apple, may explain the similarities. Siri is not the only model Emu followed, the app is also pretty similar to Google Now. So the app also goes through conversations and finds contextual information about the user, and then uses the information it gathered to plan his entire schedule and even make movie or music suggestions.

Emu started out as an Android app, and promises its new owner an incredible growth of the Google Now app by increasing its capabilities over the context it already handles. As mobile messaging is a growing market, no wander Google focused on this area. Attracting new owners and keeping the already hooked fans is probably a one of the many moves every company makes, no matter how. Apple is also focusing on mobile messaging, which is obvious due to the company’s iMessage that’s now upgraded with iOS 8, and the iOS Yosemite, another beta released to the masses while development teams are still working on the final version. All apps are developed to enable users to add multimedia messaging features, refine chat groups and make messaging both easier and more reliable, considering you can use these apps and send or receive messages, regardless of the device you own.

Using the Emu technology in Hangouts is probably what Google plans to do. Hangouts evolved from being a simple video-call service and a text communication utensil, into a multi-featured hub for Android communications. As mobile messaging also evolves day by day, it was only natural an alliance between Hangouts and Emu to happen eventually, and Google knew that too. Nothing much is known about the deal Google made with Emu, financial details were well secured and neither of the companies comments around the subject. Emu did post on their website the message “we joined Google”, and the company’s representatives said the Emu app will be shut down on August 25.