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Google Allo v18 brings adaptive icons, built-in translator also widely available

Despite the criticism that Allo seems to face on a regular basis, credit has to be given to Google for updating the app regularly with new features, settings, and more. Google just pushed out version 18 of the app on the Google Play Store, and although it isn’t the biggest Allo update we’ve ever seen, there are a couple features here that are worth talking about.

Aside from performance improvements and bug fixes, the only significant update that appears to be strictly part of v18 is support for adaptive icons with Android 8.0 Oreo. By default on my Google Pixel, the yellow Allo icon is now surrounded by a white circle, similar to many of Google’s other apps. You can change the shape of the icon to Square, Round, Rounded Square, Squircle, and Teardrop by diving into your device settings, and this is something that was recently introduced with v17 of Google Duo.

In addition to this, it’s also being reported that Allo’s Google Translate integration is being more widely rolled out (via Android Police). I, unfortunately, don’t have it on my Pixel running Allo v18, but it’s said that the translation feature is working on both v17 and v18 of the app.

To use translate messages with Allo, hold down on a message in a conversation. When you do this, you should see a Google Translate icon near the top of the screen (next to the share, forward, copy, and trash icons).Tapping on this will show a translated version of that message right next to it, and you can undo this action by holding down on the message again and tapping the undo option.

Lastly, a teardown of Allo v18 reveals a small string of text and an icon for the Opera web browser. There’s no real indication as to what this exactly means, but it’s possible that this is a sign of Opera gaining future support for Google Allo’s web client.

Allo v18 is rolling out to the Google Play Store now, but if you aren’t seeing the update for yourself just yet, you can always download the APK file directly. The process is quite simple, but if you need some help to get started, check out our step-by-step guide that walks you through exactly how to do it.

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Avatar for Joe Maring Joe Maring

Joe has been a writer and occasional video producer for 9to5Google since July 2017. Follow him on Twitter @JoeMaring1 and send all emails to joe@9to5mac.com.


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