A couple of weeks ago, Google told us on its blog about some new features Allo would soon be getting. Today, Google Allo’s head of product has confirmed to us on Twitter that one of those features, the new button for quick access to Assistant, is now rolling out for everyone.
If you’re a user of Google Allo, you probably want to get as much as you can out of the still-fairly-rudimentary messaging app. One of the many features added lately is the ability to poll your friends with a quick “yes or no” question — but Google made it a bit less than straightforward to use. Here’s how to access it…
Last year at Google’s developer conference, the tech giant introduced two new messaging applications: Allo and Duo. While Duo offers a cross-platform and simplistic video conferencing app, Allo was meant to be the go-to messenger application. Due to its very limited nature, however, the app never took off.
What features do you want to have added before you would consider using Allo as your main messaging application?
Google Allo has received countless updates since launch, adding a variety of features — most of them involving stickers in some way. Now, we’ve managed to enable some features that Google is actively working on within Allo that haven’t yet been enabled. These include a new button for quickly capturing a selfie and the ability to add stickers as decoration on photos…
Long hinted at in teardowns, Google Duo is finally adding the ability to make audio-only calls. Meanwhile, Google Allo adds the ability to share files, as well as a machine learning-powered feature to find the right emoji and sticker more quickly. These features are launching first in Brazil, with international rollout in the next few days.
Re/code found that Google’s mobile messaging app Allo can reveal your search history and other personal information when you include the Google Assistant bot in chats. Associate editor Tess Townsend made the discovery during an Allo chat with a friend.
My friend directed Assistant to identify itself. Instead of offering a name or a pithy retort, it responded with a link from Harry Potter fan website Pottermore. The link led to an extract from “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the fifth book in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. But the response was not merely a non sequitur. It was a result related to previous searches my friend said he had done a few days earlier.
And search history isn’t the only private data the Assistant can reveal to anyone you chat with …
Google unveiled its new enterprise-focused Hangouts apps yesterday, but that announcement leaves the big question of what will happen to the current consumer app (which many people use every day). At least for now, Google’s Head of Product for Allo and Duo says that the current consumer Hangouts is “not going anywhere.”
Google today has updated its Allo messaging app with support for Android Auto. With today’s update, Allo message notifications now support hands-free usage while driving, whereas before they simply disappeared behind the main interface of Android Auto.
Despite the fact that it’s not Google’s most popular messaging service, the company continues to improve Allo. The service has improved a lot since it first debuted last year, and things are only looking to get better with future updates. Today, though, Google is announcing some new enhancements to Allo…
In a Tweet this evening, Nick Fox, Google’s VP of Communications Products, shared an early look at Allo for the desktop. Although Allo had a decently strong start with over 5 million downloads in the first four days after launch, growth was quite slow after that. So slow that it took almost three months to reach 10 million downloads. Bringing Allo to the desktop might be Google’s best chance to increase user adoption…
Google just keeps adding cute features to its new Allo messaging app that are just that — cute. Recently, we’ve seen the addition of Allo themes and Fantastic Beasts stickers, Chrome Custom Tabs, selfie-generated sticker packs, and more. What better to continue the trend of surface-level features that don’t improve the experience than a new chat bot called “Lucky” that gives you GIFs?
With every Allo update has come features that almost no one is asking for, and the latest version of the app, 5.0, isn’t much exception. The new version is rolling out now on the Play Store with one major addition: Chrome Custom Tabs, for viewing web pages without leaving the app. But a quick teardown of the app we did shows that there are other — yep, you guessed it — sticker-related features right around the corner…
Google Allo passed 1 million downloads just a few days after its launch, on September 24th. It then passed 5 million downloads only four days later, on September 28th. Now, almost 3 months since that landmark, Allo has passed 10 million installs on the Google Play Store. This means that, in the last 11 weeks, Allo has amassed the same number of new installs as it did in its first week.
If you actually use Google’s new messaging app Allo, then you’re probably on the technologically-savvy side. And if you’re on the technologically-savvy side, you likely have at least one bone in your body that appreciates Star Wars. So I guess this new mashup between Allo and the forthcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story film makes sense. Google seems to think so.
While Allo is intended to be Google’s new consumer messaging solution, Google Assistant is the real star of the app. Following its launch in September and several updates that introduced major features, Allo is adding support for Brazilian Portuguese and Hindi.
We were the first to tell you that Allo would be getting background themes in a future update, and today that update has arrived. The update also brings a feature called “Smart Smiley,” which is basically recommended emoji, and some nifty new Fantastic Beasts stickers…
We told you in our quick teardown of Google Allo 2.0 just a couple days ago that we found evidence that Google is preparing to add chat themes to its Allo messenger. Now we have actually managed to enable these themes on a rooted device and we’ve screenshotted them for you to check out before the app actually gets them…
Netflix has another hit television series in Stranger Things. The technologically savvy production house has not been shy in taking advantage of the popularity in previously working with Google to make a scary VR experience based on the show. In time for Halloween, the latest integration is with Google Allo.
Pushbullet is an application that links your phone and computer together and gives you the power to not only respond to to text messages from your desktop but also send and receive links, files, and much more between all of your devices. Starting today, you will now be able to also respond to Google Allo messages right from your computer.
Allo was pretty bare bones when it first launched, but just as Google promised, the app is going to evolve over time to — hopefully — become a messaging client to compete with the likes of Facebook Messenger and even Google’s own apps like Hangouts. Today, the Mountain View company has pushed the first big update for Allo, version 2.0, which brings lots of oft-requested features…
Google’s Pixel is right around the corner for a lot of pre-orderers, and the nitty gritty details surrounding the device just keep trickling in as more and more people get their hands on one. Today, we’re hearing that Hangouts is disabled by default on the Pixel and Pixel XL in favor of Allo and Duo…
Just four days ago we told you that Google’s Allo had passed 1 million downloads on the Google Play Store, and now it appears — based on the app’s Play Store listing — that the messaging app has surpassed 5 million.
Google’s new messaging app Allo was launched this week and even though many people are not fans of the app itself, it does appear to have been downloaded many, many times already. Not counting iOS, Allo has so far been downloaded over one million times by Android users…
After months of anticipation and teases from some of Google’s developers, the company’s new Allo messaging app is finally here. Whether you like the service or not, it’s hard to deny that it has some really cool features. Messaging with Allo is smarter than pretty much anywhere else, but there are a few features you might gloss over, so let’s take a closer look…