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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

#431

Post by pmarreck »

guessmyname wrote: post #285
djhworld wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use WhatsApp Web quite a lot, it's not perfect, but it's a nice interface to use when you have access to a desktop/laptop and can continue your conversations there.

But forget to touch your phone for a couple of minutes and the web session will automatically disconnect because the phone went to standby mode, which apparently interferes with the sync between the mobile application and the web browser session. My experience is that I can only rely on the web for a short conversation until my phone goes to sleep.

As a datapoint, I don't believe this occurs on iOS.

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

#432

Post by kyrra »

codelitt wrote: post #284
TuringNYC wrote: post #254

Not sure how common this is, but everyone at both school and work these days shifts seamlessly from mobile to dekstop and back. This has been one of the main reasons we tend to use WhatsApp and Slack, even for corporate communications as silly as that sounds -- because you can type long messages on it on the keyboard/desktop but also have access to it on the go. What I don't understand is -- given Allo had a blank sl…

People keep saying mobile is the future, however, I just can't imagine desktops leaving us anytime soon. If I'm on the go, then sure I want it on my mobile device, but 99% of the time when I'm at work I want quick and easy access either through an app or the browser on my desktop. If a service I use doesn't have a desktop app, then it likely won't receive any of my attention until I'm out of the office.

Target market may be a factor here as well? Notice where the rollout started: India[0]. This goes along with Google's push to support the Next Billion Users[1]. I'm sure the team working on Allo and Duo want to support people that move regularly between Desktop and Mobile, but at the same time they want to reach out to people that are just starting to connect to the internet. Allo's initial target market may not be the HN crowd.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12545596

[1] https://www.techinasia.com/googles-reach-billion-users

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

#433

Post by lwf »

kbenson wrote: post #428
TuringNYC wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, good point -- forgot to mention that. That is a 3rd widely-available option across all three silos (Android/iOS/Desktop).

Yet apparently not business accounts. You can use the integrated hangouts in gmail, and the phone apps, but hangouts.google.com says it's not an enabled app for your account, and I can't seem to find where it's available to enable/add in the admin console (that is, I can find where to enable and add apps, but it isn't listed, and I'm a super admin). The Apps marketplace has third party apps, but that's not what I'm l…

I'm able to use hangouts.google.com in both my personal Google Apps domain and my work's Google Apps domain. Almost certainly a setting buried somewhere deep in the Admin Console. :(

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

#434

Post by aroch »

wehadfun wrote: post #402
snowwrestler wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Google Voice for a second phone number on my iPhone and yeah, it worries me how little attention it seems to get. It took Google forever to update it to match the iOS 7 "flat" look. And to this day it's missing a pretty obvious feature: search! Yes, there is no search functionality in the Google Voice app on iPhone. Apple's Messages and Facebook Messenger both have it.

Also no API. Google Voice has been ignored for so long. Probably because it is not easy to advertise on or get data from

They definitely use the voicemail transcription feature as training/test data for their NLP stuff

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

#436

Post by jvm »

whack wrote: post #249
jotux wrote: post #72

So now google has Voice, Messenger, Hangouts, Allo, and Duo all with overlapping functionality? I wish they would just focus on making Hangouts work really well.

There was a NYtimes article a few years ago, which I thought perfectly captured the fundamental difference between Apple and Google's product planning process. Apple runs on Intelligent Design. You have a room full of geniuses who decide what to build, make sure it fits perfectly into their overall product portfolio with minimal overlap or cannibalization, spend years in a dark secret room building it until it's perf…

> Director #1 decides it would be cool to have a single unified messaging/video app that works across all platforms; Director #2 decides it would be cool to have a messaging app that's perfectly customized for mobile phones and Random-Guy #3 decides to do a 20℅ project on a messaging app that integrates AI functionality. Instead of trying to pick a winner, and telling everyone else to abandon their projects, Google allows all 3 visions to play themselves out on a small scale

Yes, absolutely!!

> and then doubles down on the winner

…I'm not so sure about that step ;-)

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

#437

Post by Sargos »

rayiner wrote: post #252
barkingdog wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those portfolios are not even remotely compatible. Hangouts is the only viable product there. Meanwhile, all of Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and FB are each very strong products with extremely, almost worrisomely strong network effects. Clusterfuck is a bit vague and maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but you've got to admit that it's truly hard to think of Google as a company that makes best-in-class consumer softwar…

Google never was a company that made best in class consumer software products. Search (maybe Maps?) is the only thing it's ever excelled at.

Search, Maps, Gmail, Photos, YouTube are all best in their field. They have a lot of products that are more niche but their core lineup is solid.

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

#438

Post by justinlardinois »

kyrra wrote: post #103
justinlardinois wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was an article posted on here a few months ago about Google's version control system. One of the main features is that you don't actually checkout copies of every file in the repository; instead they're faulted in as you need them. My impression is that the monolithic repository only works because Google's built a bunch of custom tooling to support it. It doesn't mean any company can just roll all of their code…

This maybe? http://m.cacm.acm.org/magazines/2016/7/204032-why-google-sto... The key here is CITC. All the source code lives "in the cloud" and pulls to your machine as it's needed (using a FUSE file system).

Yes, that's it, and that's the key feature I was talking about.

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

#439

Post by saint_fiasco »

danohu wrote: post #256
whack wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a NYtimes article a few years ago, which I thought perfectly captured the fundamental difference between Apple and Google's product planning process. Apple runs on Intelligent Design. You have a room full of geniuses who decide what to build, make sure it fits perfectly into their overall product portfolio with minimal overlap or cannibalization, spend years in a dark secret room building it until it's perf…

The Google approach would be great, if they just separated it from the Google brand. Like, when Unilever launch a new detergent, they give it a totally separate brand. If it fails, they drop it quietly, and if it succeeds they can roll it out worldwide. I wish Google would do the same. Launch this as 'allo', with the fact that it's from alphabet buried in the small print. Once it's been doing well for a couple of yea…

If they are going to launch it and hide that it's from Alphabet, why not just let non-Alphabet companies make those products and then buy the most successful one?

That's what Facebook did.

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

#440

Post by tw04 »

djsumdog wrote: post #414
random42 wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why isn't Allo just Hangouts 3? I was wondering that too. I honestly suspect some executive in Google's team wanted to have more visibility, team and power.

oh I thought this was some new Hangouts interface, but it's not is it? So...Google Buzz. If they want something really innovative, bring back open standards and a federated IM protocol. We went from AIM/Yahoo/MSN to XMPP .. and back to Google/FB. It feels like a regression.

XMPP was just to crack the egg. They had to dangle a big enough carrot to get users to switch. They knew once they had them switched that it would be VERY unlikely users would go back. So... lockdown! And they were right, how many people have switched back to AOL/MSN/Yahoo? I know I haven't.
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