Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Say hello to Google Allo: a smarter messaging app

googleblog.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 543 posts

Re: Say hello to Google Allo: a smarter messaging app

#161

Post by nl »

chias wrote: post #81

I really wish they wouldn't overload terms that they themselves invented. In Chrome, "incognito" means we don't save your local history, but it does not add to the transport security. Here, "incognito" means you've got end-to-end encryption (and presumably also doesn't save local history). Why on earth would you re-use the same term when naming two things with similar (thus easily confused) consumer-visible attribute…

For most people, in both cases "incognito" means "porn mode".

Chrome: "Won't save your (porn) history"

Allo: "features like discreet notifications and message expiration" (ie, for sending naked pics)

The transport layer security is great too, but for a lot of people "message expiration" is the key feature.

Re: Say hello to Google Allo: a smarter messaging app

#162

Post by AstralStorm »

amaks wrote: post #70
piyush_soni wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll use everything Google, but Duo has been the most stupid video chat app I've ever used. That's because in countries where the common household internet is still not that fast, it 'aggressively' pauses (completely removes) the video for long intervals in every few minutes citing slow connection. That's a frustrating experience. I generally get around 10-12 Mbps speed (which is on the higher side in India), and my…

What's the latency of your connection? You can get 4 Mbps throughput (which is not a lot by itself, BTW), but the latency may be too high for a video chat.

People can live with a few seconds of latency on GSM. Chat is mostly half-duplex.

It is usually lack of bandwidth or major packet loss that cause trouble.

Re: Say hello to Google Allo: a smarter messaging app

#163

Post by Twisell »

TL;DR; "We had to react very quickly to Apple updated iMessage so instead of updating one of our existing clients we rolled out this new App which is a carbon copy of iMessage*"

PS: Oh and yeah we have made this useless encryption as an opt-in per session variable instead of standard...

Re: Say hello to Google Allo: a smarter messaging app

#164

Post by spdionis »

AstralStorm wrote: post #159
spdionis wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But then I recall we had working video chat a decade ago with only a few hundred Kbps... This! Even in appear.in, which is one of the most stable, I encounter connection problems almost daily. Is it because all these new apps have to go through the browser stack?

No, WebRTC and codecs do support low bitrates. Someone got lazy coding the client.

Given that I don't know anything about this domain, in my experience "supports" doesn't necessarily mean "supports well" or "there is no technical reason the browser stack slows this down, it's only the client's fault" or "would have been much easier to support in another stack without going through all this shit".

So I'm still not convinced.

Re: Say hello to Google Allo: a smarter messaging app

#165

Post by jon-wood »

77ko wrote: post #124
putlake wrote: post #8

I'm surprised Google Duo hasn't become more popular. It's a great cross-platform video chat app. I especially like the feature where you can see the other party before you answer their call. I have taken calls because of that feature that I otherwise wouldn't have. It's better than FaceTime because it works on Android. It's better than Skype and Google Hangouts because your cellphone number is your identity; you don'…

Google is treating video calling as it's own seperate thing. I much prefer Facebook Messenger where its about the contact, and u call/msg/video them and its all there in one stream. Google's disjointed approach to messaging/calling doesn't make sense to me or my non-techie friends.

The thing that irritates me about this is Hangouts could already do exactly that, long before Messenger could, and did it really well. It's by far my preferred messaging app but no one but my wife actually uses it, so I'm stuck using Messenger instead.

Re: Say hello to Google Allo: a smarter messaging app

#166

Post by netrus »

flukus wrote: post #99
obmelvin wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it any different from talking on the phone? Something that probably millions do daily in NYC.

It isn't. I think your an asshole if you use your phone on public transport.

How is it different from having a conversation with the person next to you? Wait, are those assholes too? Or just when you can understand one of them, but not the other? Oh the misanthropy ...

Re: Say hello to Google Allo: a smarter messaging app

#167

Post by wingerlang »

floopidydoopidy wrote: post #144
77ko wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not quite: - Facebook Messenger combines all the functionality of Allo and Duo. - Whatsapp already has voice calling and is adding video soon (so I read on the internet) - iMessage and Facetime integrate in IOS much better than Google Duo does. In IOS, you go to a contact and press facetime. On Android, you go to a contact... then go back out to Duo and call them. WeChat, of course, does everything that all these app…

I feel like ICQ 98 was the pinnacle of chat applications. Floating contacts and email style messages... brilliance.

> email style messages

Care to elaborate? I'm having trouble picturing what you mean. Long form with styling?

Re: Say hello to Google Allo: a smarter messaging app

#168

Post by antirez »

putlake wrote: post #8

I'm surprised Google Duo hasn't become more popular. It's a great cross-platform video chat app. I especially like the feature where you can see the other party before you answer their call. I have taken calls because of that feature that I otherwise wouldn't have. It's better than FaceTime because it works on Android. It's better than Skype and Google Hangouts because your cellphone number is your identity; you don'…

I tried it a few days ago with a bad connection and the video quality was outstanding. I'm sold.

Re: Say hello to Google Allo: a smarter messaging app

#169

Post by AstralStorm »

jmolinaso wrote: post #150
Waterluvian wrote: post #10

Why isn't it always end to end encryption? I'm getting really paranoid and crochety in my old age of 29, as all I see is a tool to make me the product.

I'm back from that paranoia period, my conclusions: - In real life you have no privacy, but still you don't think about it (white pages, community hall inscriptions, driving license, medical history, ...), apart of white pages try to unsubscribe from any of them and see what happens. Internet made it just easier to track you. - your safety is based on 2 things your habits and the peers that know you and are willing t…

Wrong, in real life random conversations are not recorded for an unspecified time.

The databases you mention have serious judicial requirements (in EU) and no free access by a company. Leaks of course happen, but they are treated seriously and are news items.

If Google had a breach, they'd do the same as everyone: cover it up or PR it down and fix it. They won't go bankrupt over even a string of break-ins.

There is less reason to trust them as they are an American company. In fact NSA had free reign over their data at some time and they didn't know about it.

While I would trust them much more than a random startup, trusting their database handling is different. Local, non collated data is often safest. Plus you're not a big target as a single person most of the time.

Post reply on HN