You say ‘Allo’ and I say ‘Bard is coming to Google Messages’

Bard is coming to Google Messages to “help you write messages, translate languages, identify images, and explore interests.”

About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.

This has more than a few shades of Assistant in Google Allo. That integration saw Assistant exist both as a standalone conversation and as a tool you could invoke inside other chats.

• Related: Google might rebrand ‘Assistant with Bard’ before launch

From what we’ve enabled today with the latest Google Messages beta, Bard can be initiated from the “New conversation” screen. It appears as a standalone chat with the Bard logo and name appearing at the top in lieu of an actual person. This integration is codenamed “penpal.”

Bard in Google Messages can draft messages, identify images, suggest books by genre, offer recipes given a list of available ingredients, and more:

• <string name=”penpal_identify_image”>Identify this image</string>
• <string name=”penpal_books”>Give me some sci-fi book picks</string>
• <string name=”penpal_camping”>Draft a camping packing list</string>
• <string name=”penpal_food”>Quick dinner ideas</string>
• <string name=”penpal_recipe”>Craft a recipe with these ingredients</string>

Example prompts include:

• “Write a text message I can send to my boss calling in sick today. It’s a big team presentation day, so I’m sad to let everyone down. 3 sentences or fewer.”
• “Create a vegetarian meal with the following ingredients I have in my fridge: cauliflower, cucumber, and yogurt”
• “Come up with a complex word riddle that has the answer: sunset. You are a skilled riddle maker, known for the cleverness of your wordplay and the complexity of your puzzles, skilled at thinking up clever and challenging riddles. Be creative. Come up with a riddle that is difficult to guess. Include hints to help the user guess.”

When Bard generates a response, which is marked with a sparkle next to the time/date, you can long-press to give it a thumbs up/down, as well as copy, forward, and star.

On the privacy front, Google says “Chats with Bard are not end-to-end encrypted”: 

They’re used to improve Google services, including the machine-learning models that power Bard. As part of that improvement, trained reviewers need to process your conversations, so when using Bard, don’t enter anything you wouldn’t want a reviewer to see or Google to use. Reviewed data is disconnected from your account and retained for up to 3 years

Thanks to JEB Decompiler, from which some APK Insight teardowns benefit.