Doesn’t Google latest offering seem like another duplication of the same thing? Maybe not exactly the same thing, as the new messaging app Allo is being taunted to have a more intuitive AI than Google Now. Still, why would you have both Google Now and Allo running on your phone? Instead, Google should have collapsed the best features of Allo and Google Now into one app.
The same goes for the other Google’s recent apps like the Messenger and Duo. These two apps really, should have been merged into Hangout. Hangout as a single platform does what both these two apps do separately, but that is just my thinking. Now to the just released Google Allo:
Allo is already available for downloads to Android and iOS devices from their respective app stores. Google is going for user assistant approach with this messaging app. Just like Facebook is doing with its Messenger’s chat bots and Apple iMessage in iOS 10.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing with Allo is the lack of 3rd party integrations, which is weird given Google reputation for making a whole rounded product. However, that could be an intentional flaw, since the company is set to launch its Google Home and the first smartphone ‘made by Google’ come October 4th 2016.
Perhaps Google wants users first to experience Allo integration with the Google Home and the Google smartphone before they experience it on other 3rd party platforms. The said Google Home is similar to the Amazon Echo devices that give users voice access to AI assistant inside their homes.
How Allo works
It works more or less like WhatsApp; you sign in using your phone number. Your Google account only comes in when syncing Allo across your other mobile devices.
“Allo is our second play in the consumer space that, just like Duo, your phone number as the identity, your phone as the graph, which is obviously filled with people, friends, and family you’re most likely to connect with, Allo Product Manager Amit Fulay told Digital Trends.
The initial goal of both Allo and Duo was to get it right when it comes to speed, latency, and overall reliability. The machine learning bit which gives it its AI feature were an afterthought in work already in progress.
