Amazon's next step at world domination could be a messaging app

Because it's one of the few areas Amazon has yet to conquer, the retail behemoth is now exploring the possibility of building its own messaging app, according to an AFTV report.

The report says Amazon has been surveying customers about what they'd like to see most in a messaging app. And based on what AFTV says, it could be a lot of what people already love about other messaging apps rolled into one.

The focus seems to be messaging, including voice and video calls, but there’s also mention of photo sharing with @mentions, as well as filters for photos and video with “special effects and masks.” Anytime will also provide tasks that can be done in groups, like playing games, listening to music, and ordering food.

So that means it will include voice and video calls like Facebook and Slack, combined with the mentions feature of Twitter and image tagging from Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, the filters of Snapchat and Instagram, and the group fun of Facebook and Slack.

Plus, AFTV says that encryption might be a central selling point of the app (like WhatsApp or Signal).

Amazon has already been inching toward messaging and calls. In February, the company rolled out Chime, a video-conferencing service that's competing with Skype for Business and WebEx. It's easy to imagine how this new messaging app could be used to get more people using the video conferencing service.

In May, Amazon also unveiled the Echo Show, a version of its popular smart speaker with a touchscreen that looks like a '90s television. The company included video calling for the device as well as free voice-calling and messaging to all Echo devices. Plus there's the Alexa app, which can be used on iOS and Android to make calls to anyone else with the app or with an Echo device.

So a move towards a solid messaging app makes perfect sense as a next step. Mashable has reached out to Amazon for further comment.

What effect this has on the rumors that Amazon is interested in buying office messaging app Slack remains to be seen. For now, I guess we're just stuck with the dozens of other messaging apps already available to us.