As part of its “spring cleaning,” recently announced it was killing off Reader much to the chagrin of the service’s rabid cult-like following of news nerds (I proudly count myself among the spited). But the company may be looking to clean house even further by stuffing its many many communication services into a new single platform.

According to a report on Geek.com citing “numerous sources,” will bundle all of its communication features under one br: Babble. Over the past decade has created numerous, sometimes overlapping communication services including Talk, Hangouts, Voice (not to mention the stillborn ve Buzz). Babble would allow users to communicate across numerous devices within various services including Gmail, +, even collaborations in Drive.

One chat platform to rule them all

This rumored chat singularity would greatly simplify the digital lives of Android users, could serve as an intimidating competitor to the Facebooks, Skypes, BBMs, iMessengers of the world.

has made recent moves to wall off its chat/talk ecosystem. Most of the company’s communication services are built on top of the open protocol, XM (formerly “bber”), however has started manipulating its architecture to block non-native XM requests. at does that all mean? wants to control how you use its services, so there would be no integration with other non- communication services.

The new service would not only be a wonderful new avenue for Android users to avoid texting fees, but would also allow them to communicate with friends regardless if they are on their laptop, tablet, phone, or simply carrying the internet around on their face. Babble would boast a wide reach across platforms services that other chat/talk venues would find difficult to compete with. In addition to simplifying ‘s roster of services, it might manage to kill off some more walled-in products. y would you stick with iMessage when so many more of your people are Androiding.

Babble is expected to be unveiled at this year’s I/O conference in mid-May.