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Neural Network-Generated Illustrations in Allo

research.googleblog.com

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Re: Neural Network-Generated Illustrations in Allo

#21

Post by antirez »

joefkelley wrote: post #20
luminiferous wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just did, it worked pretty well. It reminds me a lot of Nintendo's thing where they automatically make a Mii based off a picture of your face, except better. If you don't like the sticker pack that was outputted, you can fix your hair or whatever and try again. Took about 10-20 seconds for the first try, only 1-2 seconds for the second try, so there's probably some caching going on. My only complaint is that it's not…

Strange, I don't see anything in that menu. Haven't been able to figure out how to do it, maybe there's some sort of rolling update happening?

I think it's rolling out slowly.

Re: Neural Network-Generated Illustrations in Allo

#22

Post by technofiend »

deong wrote: post #15
pgodzin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hangouts is now meant to be intended for enterprise use while Allo is the consumer-focused messaging app

A consumer-focused messaging app. There's also Duo for video calls and "Messenger" for SMS (on Android). There's also the older thing called "Messenger" that's still running on all those devices that no one ever updated. On the desktop/browser, I guess there isn't a consumer-focused messaging app anymore. Unless I'm missing something obvious, Google apparently ceded that ground to others. I'm beginning to realize why…

App fatigue is real... when Captain Kirk flipped open his communicator he didn't select which app to use when requesting a transport. That Google has several apps which compete and conflict with each other is absurd. The fact they keep migrating functionality in and out of them is moreso. Just pick a winner and be done with it. There's not really a competitive advantage to splitting your ecosystem into 5 different communication apps, google, there's really not.

Re: Neural Network-Generated Illustrations in Allo

#23

Post by spiderfarmer »

mholmes680 wrote: post #18
spiderfarmer wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have always trouble remembering where a message came in. I have SMS / iMessage, Messenger, Whatsapp, 5 e-mail accounts and a Forum Inbox to worry about. And since you can't exactly flag messages as 'to do' I have to answer immediately or risk forgetting to reply. I hate that.

Ditto this, on android. I have Messages, which i think is Google's... and i only downloaded it because the apps from Samsung, Verizon, and Facebook went to war in January (on my phone at least) and somehow I ended up getting texts in either the samsung app or verizon but never both, but group conversations in facebook messenger, but only the verizon app would actually allow picture messages to be viewable if i sent t…

Yeah, Google's been messing up messaging ever since Google Wave.

Re: Neural Network-Generated Illustrations in Allo

#25

Post by andybak »

"Starting to roll out today" - does anyone versed in traditional PR have a say in this new trend in slow roll-outs?

I can see how it makes sense from an engineering point of view but I just installed Allo to try it out and it hasn't rolled out to me yet.

I'm rather unlikely to remember to try again in a few days/weeks etc.

This has happened multiple times in similar scenarios. I dug out my Gear VR to try the new Oculus browser. I didn't get it for 4 weeks (only a particular interest in WebVR kept me coming back to see if it was there).

Surely this is squandering good press and good will?

Re: Neural Network-Generated Illustrations in Allo

#26

Post by mifeng »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #5
levesque wrote: post #3

The feature is technically interesting, but I don't care about Allo. There are enough silly messaging apps out there, evolving in their own silos. I miss the days of the XMPP protocol.

I have always trouble remembering where a message came in. I have SMS / iMessage, Messenger, Whatsapp, 5 e-mail accounts and a Forum Inbox to worry about. And since you can't exactly flag messages as 'to do' I have to answer immediately or risk forgetting to reply. I hate that.

Me too. On my Pixel, messages will randomly appear either in:

* Allo

* Hangouts

* Messenger (Android)

* Messenger (Facebook)

* WhatsApp

It's like SMS-Roulette.

Re: Neural Network-Generated Illustrations in Allo

#27

Post by jaredklewis »

gene-h wrote: post #16

This is fucking dumb, and I am absolutely ok with this. The fact that we are able to do these 'dumb' and silly applications is a good sign. It shows that the field has advanced to the point where it is cheap enough to do these 'dumb' applications. Not only that, but this 'dumb' application has immediate value(gets more people to use google's service and thus display ads to them). Because of the value these dumb appli…

Advanced? Since the earliest AI research, it's hard to think of a time when games, puzzles, and toys were not front and center. Whether writing a chess AI would or a humorous chat bot, a focus on "silly" applications has always been the norm.

I'm not against such applications and share your opinion that they are great. But it's not new. The field has always been this way.

Re: Neural Network-Generated Illustrations in Allo

#28

Post by nl »

pgodzin wrote: post #12
dheera wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me too. I do not know any of my friends who are using Allo. Why didn't Google roll out this feature within Hangouts?

Hangouts is now meant to be intended for enterprise use while Allo is the consumer-focused messaging app

That's not entirely correct. Allo isn't suitable for consumers, because you can't be logged into more that one device at once (last time I tried it you had to actually reactivate it every time you switched device). Additionally there is no web interface.

Hangouts does have an enterprise story, but I don't understand what Google's strategy is. I'm not sure they have one.

Re: Neural Network-Generated Illustrations in Allo

#30

Post by derefr »

andybak wrote: post #25

"Starting to roll out today" - does anyone versed in traditional PR have a say in this new trend in slow roll-outs? I can see how it makes sense from an engineering point of view but I just installed Allo to try it out and it hasn't rolled out to me yet. I'm rather unlikely to remember to try again in a few days/weeks etc. This has happened multiple times in similar scenarios. I dug out my Gear VR to try the new Ocul…

In most client apps that obey backend-account feature-flags, the app will introduce (advertise) the feature to you itself when your account gets the switch flipped.

AFAICT, they don't expect this announcement to reach or sway anyone who's going to use the feature; this post is more there to serve as genuine news—i.e. it's written to provoke water-cooler "what Google is up to" conversations among developers. (It's on the Google Research blog, after all; what consumer would even see it?)

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