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Google Allo – First Impression

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Re: Google Allo – First Impression

#41

Post by bvm »

corndoge wrote: post #23
guruparan18 wrote: post #20

You can ask @Google assistant to set a reminder, check your emails, draft and send email to your contacts, share your location(in group). You can summon @Google in your group chats. So far it is certainly an interesting toy.

You can also do all of these things with the Google app, with the exact same inputs. I had a full conversation with Allo that I repeated verbally after saying "Ok Google" and the results were identical.

Can you check your emails with 'OK Google'? I use my Android phone as a satnav, and it would be really helpful on the commute to get it to read me the at least the subject lines of my inbox, I can't seem to make it do anything other than Google "Read my unread emails".

Re: Google Allo – First Impression

#42

Post by jug »

beefsack wrote: post #18

The more proprietary chat platforms that arise, the more I want to see Matrix[1] / Riot[2] succeed. Communication networks should not be corporate controlled walled gardens. [1]: https://matrix.org [2]: https://matrix.org/docs/projects/client/riot-ios.html https://matrix.org/docs/projects/client/riot-android.html

It's taken surprisingly long for an open network like this to become common! You'd think that would be the only concept with longevity and "punch", due to the very nature of communications: unwalled always wins. I mean, that's why e-mail is still used. I also hope we'll get rid of these silly games by Google and others in the future.

Re: Google Allo – First Impression

#43

Post by Leynos »

Having tried it out, I'm more than a little puzzled. What I don't understand is why make this yet another new platform, instead of just adding it as a new feature to hangouts?

All they've done is introduce friction to the onboarding process.

Unless I'm really missing something here. As the linked article says, Google already has our contacts, and they already have a list of the people we chat with, etc. Why not just make use of this instead of asking everyone to start from scratch again?

Re: Google Allo – First Impression

#44

Post by nicky0 »

pritambarhate wrote: post #39

From the article: > It’s like the early days of the iPhone – the skeuomorphism design helped users get accustomed to use it, through the icons that imitated physical objects. Once they got educated, more than 8 years latter, the flat design was introduced. Does anybody have a link for an official proclamation from Apple confirming this? To me it felt like an effort to bring something new and exciting as skeuomorphism…

Jony Ive was interviewed about it at the time.

“When we sat down last November (to work on iOS 7), we understood that people had already become comfortable with touching glass, they didn’t need physical buttons, they understood the benefits,” says Ive. “So there was an incredible liberty in not having to reference the physical world so literally. We were trying to create an environment that was less specific. It got design out of the way.”

From http://www.cultofmac.com/246312/jony-ive-explains-why-he-dec...

Re: Google Allo – First Impression

#45

Post by TorKlingberg »

amelius wrote: post #35
beefsack wrote: post #18

The more proprietary chat platforms that arise, the more I want to see Matrix[1] / Riot[2] succeed. Communication networks should not be corporate controlled walled gardens. [1]: https://matrix.org [2]: https://matrix.org/docs/projects/client/riot-ios.html https://matrix.org/docs/projects/client/riot-android.html

I'm surprised that email is not corporate controlled yet. What did email do right that chat did wrong? Afaik, there was once a good standard for chat.

IRC is good in many ways, but it doesn't store messages for you. Your client has to be connected all the time or you will miss messages. It lacks good user accounts too, just NickServ.

Re: Google Allo – First Impression

#46

Post by [deleted] »

modeless wrote: post #19
lewisl9029 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It stores your texts in the cloud forever It does? Are we talking about SMS here? Last time I checked Hangouts certainly did not sync SMS messages. A real shame because I miss that functionality sorely when switching between devices.

It does if you use Google Voice or Google Fi.

[deleted]

Re: Google Allo – First Impression

#47

Post by rmc »

amelius wrote: post #35
beefsack wrote: post #18

The more proprietary chat platforms that arise, the more I want to see Matrix[1] / Riot[2] succeed. Communication networks should not be corporate controlled walled gardens. [1]: https://matrix.org [2]: https://matrix.org/docs/projects/client/riot-ios.html https://matrix.org/docs/projects/client/riot-android.html

I'm surprised that email is not corporate controlled yet. What did email do right that chat did wrong? Afaik, there was once a good standard for chat.

This is why you should run your own mail server. Email, along with the web, is the last part of the decentralised internet to exist. Don't let it die.

Re: Google Allo – First Impression

#49

Post by pritambarhate »

nicky0 wrote: post #44
pritambarhate wrote: post #39

From the article: > It’s like the early days of the iPhone – the skeuomorphism design helped users get accustomed to use it, through the icons that imitated physical objects. Once they got educated, more than 8 years latter, the flat design was introduced. Does anybody have a link for an official proclamation from Apple confirming this? To me it felt like an effort to bring something new and exciting as skeuomorphism…

Jony Ive was interviewed about it at the time. “When we sat down last November (to work on iOS 7), we understood that people had already become comfortable with touching glass, they didn’t need physical buttons, they understood the benefits,” says Ive. “So there was an incredible liberty in not having to reference the physical world so literally. We were trying to create an environment that was less specific. It got…

Thanks for the reference.

Re: Google Allo – First Impression

#50

Post by JimDabell »

amelius wrote: post #35
beefsack wrote: post #18

The more proprietary chat platforms that arise, the more I want to see Matrix[1] / Riot[2] succeed. Communication networks should not be corporate controlled walled gardens. [1]: https://matrix.org [2]: https://matrix.org/docs/projects/client/riot-ios.html https://matrix.org/docs/projects/client/riot-android.html

I'm surprised that email is not corporate controlled yet. What did email do right that chat did wrong? Afaik, there was once a good standard for chat.

> What did email do right that chat did wrong?

It started out decentralised and became ubiquitous and mission-critical before any giants could gain enough market share to control it.

The only thing chat had close to it was IRC, but that has never been ubiquitous nor mission critical, and it's less attractive to newcomers than the proprietary alternatives.

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