True or not, Google clearly needed yet another messaging service, which they in about a year's time would have messed up and deprecated.
Exactly. It's almost been a year since Allo was released, which means we are due for an announcement of a new messaging app from Google. Likely something that combines Allo and Duo into a single app, and call it something like Trio.
Of course, when they inevitably split "Trio" into separate apps a year after release, they won't be able to stick with the same name convention.