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Say hello to Google Allo: a smarter messaging app

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

#171

Post by wutbrodo »

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'm surprised Google Duo hasn't become more popular. It's a great cross-platform video chat app.

For apps that rely on network effects, pure feature competition isn't the only (or sadly, even the most) relevant factor. I commented on this in the Duo announcement thread (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12295847), but the gist was something like:

With GChat, they squandered a massive, decade-early networks effect advantage with ten years of inexplicably idiotic product decisions, rebranding, failure to adequately replace deprecated products, etc. I actually generally consider them to have the absolute best products in terms of feature quality, far more often than not; Yet at this point, I can't imagine why anyone would see a Google product that relies on network effects at all and not run as far away as fast as possible.

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

#172

Post by huckyaus »

toephu2 wrote: post #112
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…

You must live in a bubble or have never worked at a large company before. There are two totally different teams building these products. Is it really that inconceivable for them (yes, even Google) to make this oversight?

If you read the blog post you might have noticed that they specifically mention Chrome's Incognito mode.

> But we went a step beyond this and we created a mode within Google Allo called Incognito (h/t Chrome).

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

#174

Post by pimeys »

kuschku wrote: post #108
dovdov wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

End-to-end encryption from your phone to Google's server, where neural networks now analyze all your data, Super cute! Lovely Labrador!

The encryption for incognito actually is Moxie’s protocol, as used in Signal and WhatsApp. The one single good thing about allo.

Just recently there was a HN post about security bugs in Signal. Signal is open source and the bugs will be fixed at some point, but I wouldn't trust all these proprietary apps will follow the lead so fast.

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

#175

Post by pjmlp »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #157
pjmlp wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who validates that that statement is indeed true, we in our naivety should just plain believe it?

As much as you would any other company - Apple, for example - unless someone trawls through the source code to verify the claim.

Exactly, but somehow many seem to believe Google is different.

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

#176

Post by flukus »

netrus wrote: post #166
flukus wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ...

The phone is generally a lot louder, and filled with a lot more "SORRY I MISSED THAT, I'M GOING THROUGH A TUNNEL".

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

#178

Post by wutbrodo »

jon-wood wrote: post #165
77ko wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm in roughly the same position, and the absolutely frustrating thing is that they had (on gchat) the largest chat network at precisely the point where chat-over-IP started to skyrocket in usage. But then Google spent a year (apparently) willfully chasing away users from their communications products through obscenely incompetent product decisions over the next decade.

I spent almost half a decade at Google, and I _know_ that their product people are fairly competent, but the company is so badly run on the product side (in terms of incentives, etc) that product at Google has the emergent property of being extremely, extremely bad at what they do.

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

#179

Post by spacehunt »

mullsork wrote: post #160
rtpg wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are other reasons, but I really dislike using my phone number as an ID. Phone numbers are much harder to change , so if some annoying person gets a hold of it suddenly they can harass me across networks. This is a thing that actually happens! A big reason why I don't like telegram (even if everything else is awesome). I'm cool with my account being linked to a phone number, but I'd rather avoid giving t…

Even worse is when you loose your phone. I just lost mine (still hoping some nice Berliner turned it into the lost and found) and I guess I've gone and lost all my whatsapp history + contacts there.

I think Whatsapp backs up its chat history to Google Drive / iCloud.

For contacts it just uses the system address book.

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

#180

Post by wutbrodo »

flukus wrote: post #176
netrus wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ...

The phone is generally a lot louder, and filled with a lot more "SORRY I MISSED THAT, I'M GOING THROUGH A TUNNEL".

So your problem is with "loud conversations", but you decided to use the very fuzzy proxy of "phone conversations" because........?
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