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Source: Google Allo will be officially shut down soon

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Re: Source: Google Allo will be officially shut down soon

#41
post #20

I complain about Google having too many competing/overlapping products, so I can't really complain when they close/merge them. The best time to shutdown Allo was before it launched, the second best time is now.

From an Xoogler's perspective, the launches are all about the promos. Eg, just think about all those engineers who would not have gotten a promotion because then they would not have had a product launch in their promo packet.

Re: Source: Google Allo will be officially shut down soon

#42

Another one to the cemetery https://killedbygoogle.com/

I don't really think it is fair to include hardware in that list. It makes sense to memorialize the death of a hardware line, but it doesn't really make sense to memorialize every single piece of hardware. That's a bit like memorializing every minor version of software that is superceded by a new version.

Re: Source: Google Allo will be officially shut down soon

#43

Google dumped an incredible amount of money into Allo's marketing at my (large state) university -- they plastered many buildings with full-length advertisements, filled all of the local businesses with pamphlets, and even drove students around campus in weird little (electric?) buggies[1]. Despite all that, I don't think I know anybody who installed (much less regularly used) Allo. Edit: They also bought Snapchat fi…

People can smell when a product isn't earnest. From the beginning, Allo smelled like a directive by a Google VP to "get messaging market share."

Re: Source: Google Allo will be officially shut down soon

#44

Google dumped an incredible amount of money into Allo's marketing at my (large state) university -- they plastered many buildings with full-length advertisements, filled all of the local businesses with pamphlets, and even drove students around campus in weird little (electric?) buggies[1]. Despite all that, I don't think I know anybody who installed (much less regularly used) Allo. Edit: They also bought Snapchat fi…

People can smell when a product isn't earnest. From the beginning, Allo smelled like a directive by a Google VP to "get messaging market share."

Not that I’m defending Allo, but I don’t know how useful your distinction is. What is an earnest product then?

Any product released by a company that has bills to pay is released to “get market share”.

Re: Source: Google Allo will be officially shut down soon

#45
Google feels like a company that's run by a bunch of engineers/product managers instead of a product leader with a cohesive vision. Anyone with an iPhone would understand what iMessages is and what FaceTime is. What is what and what you can do with each. Now explain it to me Google - what's your vision? (Or is it "target end state" in engineering speak?) As customers we want (at most) one chat application and one video calling application. What is it going to be?

It's the exact same story with Music applications too. Android Music and Google Play Music seems abandoned. YT Music is pushed down the throat with a ton of the features of GPM missing. Subscription pricing keeps changing around. Same story with Gmail/Inbox. One by one I have left all Google's products now.

That said, whoever is running Google Maps is a genius. It's one product that gets it right. The fact that overlayed business listing, transit, traffic and now ride share systems ...etc. is just brilliant. We take it for granted. But if Google Maps ended up in the hands of whoever was in charge of their messaging or music strategy we'd have - Google Maps, Google Directions, Google Transit, Google Businesses, Google Restaurants and Google Rides.

Re: Source: Google Allo will be officially shut down soon

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read that, but I don’t have much faith. And I would hardly recommend something to the average person in my family when I expect major changes that require them to relearn how to do things. There’s a reason I just recommend FaceTime or Skype to family members, it’s consistency.

But on the App Store, you can see that people fondly refer to Duo as the FaceTime for those without FaceTime. If Duo goes away without replacement, I think people will actually miss it.

I got a Duo ad Hulu yesterday. I think it will survive

Re: Source: Google Allo will be officially shut down soon

#47
post #38

Does anyone have a good alternative for someone who is not tech savvy at all and on an Android phone? I set this up on my mom’s phone because she doesn’t get good enough cell reception at or around her place so an internet based messaging system works best. She is in very poor health and can barely hold the phone so something that doesn’t have a lot of small icons and in general just easy to setup and use would be gr…

Skype is still everyone's go to.

I haven't used Skype outside of work for probably 10 years

Re: Source: Google Allo will be officially shut down soon

#48
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People can smell when a product isn't earnest. From the beginning, Allo smelled like a directive by a Google VP to "get messaging market share."

Not that I’m defending Allo, but I don’t know how useful your distinction is. What is an earnest product then? Any product released by a company that has bills to pay is released to “get market share”.

I assumed GP meant that there's nothing in it for the user, only for the company.

Other examples include carrier-branded apps that come preinstalled on phones.

Re: Source: Google Allo will be officially shut down soon

#50
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People can smell when a product isn't earnest. From the beginning, Allo smelled like a directive by a Google VP to "get messaging market share."

Not that I’m defending Allo, but I don’t know how useful your distinction is. What is an earnest product then? Any product released by a company that has bills to pay is released to “get market share”.

In this context, an earnest product could be a messaging product that aimed to solve a problem with other existing products and had a coherent story explaining this.

Allo from the outside seemed to solve no problem other than "people are using messaging platforms that aren't ours".

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