Google Allo gets expected background themes, emoji suggestions, Fantastic Beasts stickers

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…

First up are the Allo themes, which we actually exclusively showed you in a gallery a few weeks ago. As we told you, the app is going to suggest that you pick a theme every time you start a new conversation, and then you’ll be able to change it at any time from the same menu that houses other chat details like notifications and seeing a gallery of shared media.

There’s also the new “Smart Smiley” feature, which is basically a different implementation of what Apple did with iOS 10. As you’re typing you can tap on the “Smart Smiley” button, which will give you context-relevant suggestions for emojis and stickers. If you haven’t started typing a message yet, the feature ives you suggestions based on the conversation itself.

Finally, Google mentioned a new sticker pack in today’s blog post. You can now use stickers from Fantastic Beasts — the same partner that Google worked with to launch on Daydream. “We’re bringing the pre-Harry Potter wizarding world directly into your chats with stickers inspired by the film,” Google says.

You can download Google Allo on both Android and iOS on their respective app stores. Google says that it is beginning to roll out these features today, and that they should all be available across the world within the next few days.