Google announced a new messaging app called Allo during this year’s keynote and it was a bit of a surprise since they also have Hangouts, which has been with us for quite a while. Also on the keynote, the company also announced Duo which is a simple video chatting platform which was not available at the time. However, Duo was rolled out a month ago and now the company has decided to roll out Allo.
Unlike other messaging apps, Allo is quite smart. One of the features in the messaging app is called Smart Reply which uses AI to perform tasks like suggesting responses for photos or texts. Apparently it will improve over time and will be unique to you.
Just like any other messaging app, in addition to the texts, you will be able to add emojis, stickers and photos. They have also copied WhatsApp and iOS 10 messaging apps where you can make emojis larger and as a bonus also making texts larger. To do this, you only need to drag the send button up or down to adjust the size to give the appropriate effect. You can also scribble doodles on your photos before sending and they have partnered with artists to create 25+ custom sticker packs which is quite cool!
The other cool thing about Allo is the Google Assistant which is the AI assistant the company also announced in their Google I/O keynote address. In Allo, Google says you will get a “preview edition” of the assistant where you will be able to have a conversation with it. You will be able to get information about something, making plans or just have some fun with it.
Security is important in the messaging app world and various platforms have retrofitted their ecosystems with various features for them to be safe to their users. Google did not want to be left behind by claiming that Allo is encrypted with the standard encryption technologies and went further by adding an incognito mode. This incognito mode works like Telegram’s Secret chat where the chats are encrypted end-to-end and the messages can be set to expire.
Allo is being rolled out to both iOS and Android worldwide and of course it is being rolled out gradually so you just have to wait up. It seems to be a very interesting app to try out and see the reception towards it as its sibling Duo already racked up 10 million downloads already.
