Google Launches Allo Smart Messaging App

Google Allo launched last night and is fully available to almost everyone on Google Play at this point. Allo is a "smart messaging app that learns over time to make conversations more expressive and productive," Google said at its I/O developer conference earlier this year, where it first teased the app. Whether it is to check the status of a flight or look up that new restaurant. So we created Allo, a messaging app that helps you keep your conversation going, by providing assistance when you need it," Google said in a blog post announcing Allo's arrival.

You can start using Allo by going to Google Play Store and downloading the app. Create a profile linked to your phone number and Google account. After that is done, you'll be able to see who in your phone's contact list is using Allo and you can simply initiate a chat with them and also invite other friends.

Photos, Emojis and Stickers

Every messaging app nowadays allows sending of photos, emojis, and stickers. But Allo offers special features that make sending them more fun. There’s the set of tools that you can use to draw on photos before sending them. There’s also the feature that lets you make emojis and text larger or smaller by dragging the send button up or down. And then there’s the collection of sticker packs, which Google says are designed by independent artists specially for Allo.

Besides these, the app has a lot of options for sharing photos, emojis and over 200 stickers created by popular independent artists aimed at Indian users.

Search messages by keyword

The search bar at the top of the Google Allo app is actually pretty handy, because it can dig through your message history to find keywords. Just tap the search icon to open the search bar and then type in the keyword or phrase you're looking for, and results will populate automatically. Tap a result to go directly to the message with the keyword in it.

Google Assistant

Finally, Siri like experience for Android users! If you have used chat bots like Slack, it won’t take you much time to get acquainted with the in-built virtual assistant that Allo has to offer.  You can call on Google Assistant at any time just by typing "@google" in Allo. For example, if you and your friend are making plans to visit a restaurant in your area, you can simply type in your query in the chat window to bring up these results. Google Assistant will proactively suggest options to your queries at the bottom of the app's messaging window. That means you no longer have to leave your messaging app to do a quick Google search for your favourite restaurants, Coldplay concert details, movie time and so on. You can simply copy the information from the bottom window to your chat window and share it with your friends. Allo's Google Assistant can get everything done in the app itself. During the launch of the app in May, Sundar Pichai, Google CEO said, “Think of the assistant, we think of it as a conversational assistant, we want users to have an ongoing two-way dialogue.”

Smart Reply

The app can provide automatic responses to messages on behalf of the user. It does this through a software that contains machine-learning technology, which gets better at picking up the user’s most frequently used responses with increased usage of the app. For instance if someone sends you a ‘How are you?’, the app will offer you the automatic response of ‘Good, how about you’ that you can send across. It may seem impersonal at first but it builds up with greater use and is definitely convenient for those who are on the run and are too busy to type out a response.

Incognito mode

One of the best features that’s not usually available in such apps is the incognito mode, which gives a user end-to-end encription, message expiration and discreet notifications.

Set a reminder

To add a reminder, type in "reminder," and the assistant will walk you through adding a reminder. You can use natural language to add a reminder -- something like "remind me meeting tomorrow at 2PM, and you’ll receive a notification that a reminder has been set for that time. You can also type "show upcoming reminders" to see upcoming reminders that have been scheduled.

Text formatting and more advanced features

Google Allo allows you to format your text and send across larger and smaller font sizes of text messages, allowing you to increase or decrease the text size by sliding the send button up and down respectively, a feature that Whatsapp does not allow. It also has a wider array of sticker-collection and even allows the user to scribble on pictures before sending it across.

Play a game

If you’re bored and aren’t interested in messing with any of the other apps on your phone, you can “play a game” of Emoji Movies or Emoji Riddle. These games also work in conversations, so you can compete with your friends.

You’re interested enough by its key features, particularly Google Assistant, to try out yet another messaging app. Google’s Assistant might need seem like much of a revelation to anyone who has been using Siri, Google Now or Cortana on a regular basis, but being able to inject a smart AI into any text message conversation is a neat trick.