Alexa Anytime: Amazon Next Venture Could Be A Messaging App

Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN is emerging as a potent retail and tech conglomerate, given its diversification into several areas.

The latest foray could be into messaging app, named Anytime, if one were to go by a report that appeared in AFTV News.

The report said Amazon has begun collecting data from customers regarding the features they would like to have in a messaging service. Information gathered from one of the persons surveyed suggested that the product may be market-ready, according to AFTV News.

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Possible Features

Amazon's Anytime is speculated to be an all-in-one feature rich service that could rival equivalent services of even social networking sites such as Facebook Inc FB Messenger and WhatsApp.

Apart from the core functionality of messaging, including text and voice messages and video calls, the report said it could include photo sharing with @mentions as well as filters for photos and video, with special effects and masks, just as being offered by Snap Inc SNAP's Snapchat and Instagram.

The service would also allow group activity such as playing games, listening to music and ordering food. Other features such as maintaining privacy of chats and encryption are also believed to be part of the service.

Since Amazon's Alexa app, which allows messaging and calling, is primarily a part of Amazon's Echo hardware, the report said it will only be logical for the company to separate Alexa's messaging app into a separate app in order to provide leeway for adding new features to compete against other established messaging platforms.

The report surmises that the proposed app would work on desktop and mobile devices, both Android and Apple Inc. AAPL's iPhone.

Foray Into A Crowded Market

The messaging app market is crowded, with a host of big and small players. WhatsApp, Viber, Line, Snapchat, Alphabet Inc GOOG's Hangout, Slack, Signal are a few to name. Some speculate that this attempt is a baby step into social networking.

Amazon failed to capitalize on its 1998 acquisition of PlanetAll, which was a rudimentary version of Facebook at a time when Facebook didn't exist. It closed down the unit in 2000 after incorporating some of the features into its Marketplace.

Whatever be the intention, going by Amazon's deep pockets and its indomitable spirit in tasting success with its foray into unrelated businesses, the retail giant could give the existing services a run for their money.