Google Allo

Over the past week, the narrative around Google’s messaging and communication services has been defined by a spate of planned deprecations — both of which 9to5Google first reported about. While older services will be “sunset,” the company’s vision for consumers hasn’t changed much since earlier this year, revolving around RCS “Chat” and Google Duo video calling.

However, complicating this dual-service future now is the newly-revealed fact that the enterprise-focused Hangouts Chat and Meet will also be available to consumers, and that Google Voice is still an active service. This is just the latest in Google’s tangled and sometimes incoherent strategy for simply saying “Hello.”

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Google this week clarified its future messaging plans following our twin reports about classic Hangouts and Allo. After development on the latter was paused in April, the company on Wednesday announced that it would be sunset next year. Ahead of that, Google today released what is likely one of the last updates for the smart messaging app to help users export chats.

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Over the past several days, 9to5Google reported that Google was planning to move away from “classic Hangouts” and sunset Google Allo. Amid the discussion about the company’s messaging future, Google today clarified its strategy, and published a definite blog post confirming our two reports.

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Google will announce that it’s shutting down the shortlived Google Allo chat app “soon,” according to a reliable source familiar with the plan, although the timeline of the announcement may have been delayed by the backlash stemming from our report about ‘Hangouts classic’ being shuttered.

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Despite having multiple messaging apps, Allo is the app Google markets most for consumer chats. While it does have a web interface, it must first be signed in through the phone app and must remain in constant communication with the handset. Thankfully, Googler Justin Uberti gives us hope that this will change soon.
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After a hiatus due to the December holidays, the latest Google Allo update is now rolling out. In version 26, we’ve been able to activate a cool new expressive feature called “Scene Generation,” as well as the ability to preview Assistant results and set default identities.

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In a teardown last month, we spotted Allo preparing a transcription feature for voice messages. With version 25 rolling out now, that functionality is beginning to go live for users, while Google continues work on camera effects and a Reply feature that quotes previously sent messages.

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Our teardown of Allo 24 revealed that Google’s consumer messaging app might be on the verge of letting users contact one another via email address. This would alter the app’s central tenet of phone number-based communication which have informed other features like the web app and only being able to sign-in on one device.

Fortunately, the latest update of Allo hints that too might be change, with Google working on multi-device support for the service.
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The latest update to Google Allo is rolling out this morning. While the messaging app is light on new changes or features, version 24 reveals that the ability to reach people via Google account and email address is in the works. Furthermore, there are several changes to related to the camera.

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Version 22 of Allo introduced selfie clips and the ability to have admins with privileges in group chats. The latest update is now rolling out and a teardown reveals Google might be closer to launching camera effects and audio transcriptions. Meanwhile, new features under development include contact sharing.

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In our teardown of Google Allo 22, we spotted the messaging service working on new functionality like audio clip transcription and improved replies. Those features are not yet available, but some other ones — including group chat controls and Selfie clips — that we’ve long activated are now live.

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The latest version of Google Allo rolled out over the weekend with a mix of new fun and useful features in the works. This latter group includes audio message transcription, replies, and better adaptive icon support. Meanwhile, work on camera filters continues in version 22.

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During the last few months, Google has been working hard to bring users to Allo and Duo. While Duo has been a relative success (it’s pre-installed on Pixels, and widely regarded as a simply great video calling app), let’s talk about Allo, and what Google do to make it comparable to the competition.

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Group communication is one of the most vital aspects of college nowadays, and Google is seemingly starting to take advantage of that. While Facebook Messenger has been a strong contender for most users, Google appears to be stepping into the ring by heavily advertising Allo as a worthy alternative…

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Since launching Allo for web, Google has been working hard to continuously improve the service. This includes performance updates, bringing over features like large and small text from the mobile application, and more. This morning, Allo for web was updated with a new tip on how to get the most out of the web application, and the included image is quite odd…

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