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Exclusive: Google Plus Messenger And Conversations Will Become "Chords" According To Google Plus v2.0 App Found In ICS [Screenshots]

Posted by in Applications, Exclusives, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News
Last Updated: June 5th, 2012

Get ready, folks - the next few days are going to get really interesting. We've already started seeing Ice Cream Sandwich leaks, so why don't we join the fun as well?

This tidbit comes from the Google Plus app found on the Verizon Ice Cream Sandwich device (thanks for dropping some goodies at our porch, Geek Vundotra!). The Google Plus app found on this device is no ordinary app - it's marked as v2.0 and contains numerous UI changes from the v1.0.x that is in the Market right now. But we'll dedicate a separate post to that - right now I wanted to point out something that immediately jumped at me as soon as I installed and opened Google Plus 2.0 on my EVO (yes, it's compatible).

Remember how Google renamed Huddle To Messenger a short while ago? Either they weren't satisfied with that name either or Android engineers had a change of heart, but the Messenger and Conversations in Google Plus 2.0 from Ice Cream Sandwich are renamed to simply... Chords.

Take a look:

wm_snap20111007_100438 wm_snap20111007_101141 wm_snap20111007_101157 wm_snap20111007_101422

Does this name change make any sense to you? I suppose Google *could* think that Messenger is too generic, or perhaps there was a legal issue with the name, but something tells me "Chords" is just going to confuse users further. It's also possible that this name will never make it to the public, but as far as we can tell, v2.0 is a legitimate and substantial update over v1.0.

Stay tuned for more details about this new version of Google Plus as well as more ICS stuff you can actually try out for yourself.

Thanks, Geek Vundotra

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Artem Russakovskii
Artem is a die-hard Android fan, passionate tech blogger, obsessive-compulsive editor, bug hunting programmer, and the founder of Android Police.
Most of the time, you will find Artem either hacking away at code or thinking of the next 15 blog posts.

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  • Imre

    great scoop!

    Can't wait for more ICS news..

  • Trey

    me wants APK now please

  • Ron Amadeo

    What a terrible name.
    I instantly know what "Messenger" means. "Huddle" is pretty easy to figure out. "Chord" doesn't make any sense at all. No one will know what a Chord is without clicking on it first.

    • Chriskin

      Having facebook's Messenger and google+'s Messenger next to each other is definitely stranger than having a Chord application that you will only have to run once to know what it is

    • Chris Bailey

      Amen, that's the first thing I thought of. Why the name change? We don't need this I was satisfied with messenger and it makes more sense if they integrate it with google talk then they can just use it like a cross-platform like BBM service on practically all smartphones >_< I don't see why Google doesn't see that.

  • Marc

    No download link for us to try? ;)

  • imfloflo

    So you are saying that you have a device with ICS so we can dump the rom and try porting it to new device ?

    F.

  • http://www.mobile-dom.co.uk Domenico lamberti

    duuuuuuuuuuuude where is that .apk ? we all want some G+ V2 app lurvee, also does this app work with rooted phones, G+ in its current form doesnt seem to work well will CM7

  • asd

    That action bar looks hideous.

  • http://stevenschoen.com Steven

    Exclusive: Google Plus Messenger suffering from identity crisis.

  • Cullen

    I am pretty sure that it is playing off of the phrase "Strike a chord." It is similar to striking up a conversation, but that is just me.

  • Tim Fenton

    I was thinking it was from the hash table algorithm called a chord. It has to do with circles of nodes being connected by chords, so it goes along well with the idea of google+ / circles / new connections being made via other connections cicles connecting to circles..etc..

    • ari-free

      Leave it to google to come up with discrete math references to describe social apps

  • Hotmann

    Huddle was a sweet name...bring that back!

  • Adam

    Do people who aren't at least somewhat familiar with playing music know what a chord is? It's just two or more notes played at once, and while I'm sure most people have an *idea* of what a chord is, I'm not sure most people could define it. I could be wrong, but I tend to err on the side of caution when making guesses about the general public's level of awareness about anything. If I'm wrong, and I would love to be, it's a pretty decent name for what a huddle actually is.

    That said, I still don't really understand why this function is a) a part of Google+ and not built into Talk, and b) only available to those with smartphones. I'm not a Google engineer, but it seems like rolling this functionality into something that anyone with a Gmail account is already using makes more sense than making it part of a social network that is still in the process of gaining traction and opening it up to desktop use would make it a lot more useful all around.

  • Lavi

    4% battery juice lost... Isn't this too much?

  • Paul

    What a stupid name, Messenger was much better

  • gabbre

    is the interface optimized for tablet?

  • Ben Baggley

    With this APK Messenger has gone back to Huddle for me...

  • stream

    Why don't you give us the link to the apk for this??

  • Peter

    If they are going to rename the app every version I guess it doesn't matter what they call it this week. If they are going to stick with one name please choose something less sucky than chords.

  • Tim

    Would it not be most likely that this is a 2.0 build from before the official rename to messenger. This release was not for public consumption. The name was probably a candidate name.

    • http://www.AndroidPolice.com Artem Russakovskii

      That is also possible.

  • someoneinformed

    Thank you Tim. You guys are really just foolish.

  • rusco

    I have downloaded Google+ 2.0 yesterday, why I'm still seeing "Huddle" instead of "Chord" in my installed Google+ 2.0?

    Is there any "hidden" problems?

  • Heffo

    Hi, I've just installed G+ 2.0 tonight and like rusco I'm seeing 'Huddle' instead of 'Chord' too.

  • zyth

    if anyone is wondering why your "People" app might be FC'ing constantly, this is the cause. It seems on some phones /ROMs this app causes FC until it is uninstalled where it returns to normal

  • http://gorey.co Michael

    I installed on my wife's phone and she got Chord. On my phone it stayed as Huddle.

  • Gian

    Can they add a desktop version already? god damn it.

  • Nujad

    I don’t know why more people haven’t tackled this perspective, but I can easily see Chords being Google’s integration of all its communication platforms sans Gmail. Google has Google Talk, Messaging or Google Voice (SMS on Android), and Huddle (currently named Messenger). A chord by definition is a group of (typically three or more) notes sounded together, as a basis of harmony. If you apply that definition, somewhat liberally, it would be the conjunction of those services into one very appealing service. Think of the possibilities; instant group messaging synced across on your mobile device as well as their web front i.e. Gmail, Google+, and third party instant messaging aggregators. If they pull that of I see them single handedly killing SMS as we know it today.

  • Jathan

    Im sure there is a bigger picture we are not seeing. They are probably renaming some products so they can come up with an integrated messaging system where everything comes together. its probably called Google Messenger and probably comes with sms, google+ chat, Talk, Voice, And whatever else they can throw in there. Its gonna be sweet.