Google’s new messaging app Stadia

Over the years, Google has become disreputable for making and “killing” messaging apps, as well as golf putting messages into apps where it may or may not be helpful, like YouTube. Now, Google is making ready to launch messaging into one more app, Stadia.

Right now, there are only 2 ways in which to speak to your friends while playing Google Stadia — through a game’s inherent voice chat or through Stadia’s own cross-game party voice system. If you would like to simply send a friend a fast message, perhaps to see what time they want to play, you would like to be ready to reach them through another app.

Simple messaging has been a core part of a gaming platform for well over a decade currently. On many counts, it’s shocking that Stadia doesn’t have messaging, between its utility to gamers and Google’s zeal for making messaging apps. It appears this may currently be poised to change.

Stadia version 2.16 has arrived in the Play Store this week, and as per 9to5Google’s APK Insight team dug to see what Google has planned next for their streaming service. Among alternative details, like more Android TV prep and also the ability to share your captures, we discovered various references within the app’s code to messages and chat.

In the teardown, we found a big variety of the latest references to the flexibility to “chat,” have “conversations,” and send “direct messages,” all of that is being developed behind an internal flag. All of this powerfully points to Stadia gaining a full in-app messaging experience.

• enableTextChatFlag
• createChatMessage
• Message History panel title
• Text chat
• batchGetChatMessages
• ChatMessages
• ConversationViewModel
• DirectChatMessageList
• DirectMessageLastReadTimestamps
• ChatMessagesModel

We also found a replacement privacy setting — added in a previous version, but not created offered yet — that pretty explicitly calls out the flexibility for people to send you “chat messages.”

• A privacy setting defining who can message you.
• Send you to chat messages

While the idea of “another Google messaging app” is enough to create some people groan, Stadia is honestly a prime candidate for messaging, to stay gamers connected while not relying only on voice chat.

Considering several, if not most Stadia players have already got the app installed on their phone, it would build a great deal of sense for Stadia’s messaging capabilities to launch there. That said, things still seem to be in an early stage, and therefore we don’t expect Stadia’s chat capabilities to launch any time soon.