7 reasons why Google Allo will kill Whatsapp
We live in an age where technology rules almost every aspect of our overbooked schedules. Today, almost all of our actions, hobbies and even free thought stems from what we read or see online, or which apps clogging up our now limited 16 GB memory space, can offer us. These give us the easiest medium to communicate with fellow humans, even robots (case in point Siri and Cortana) and cares nought for geography, since you can virtually be facing your sister living overseas- spending hours ‘hanging out’ like you would in your room at home. With all the upcoming technological advancements and developments in the field of Artificial Intelligence, our brains are relentless to create more for us, offering us maximum comfort and minimum effort.
And that’s where Google’s new app- ‘Google Allo’ comes in. It has all the oldies in the block sitting at the edge of their seats, because its new and user friendly features will give them all a run for their money.
Although Whatsapp loyalists may speak out against the new app, which is the second part to Google’s new messaging plan with Duo, and remain fiercely loyal to the Facebook-acquired app, here’s a comparison between the two bringing light to the possibility that Google Allo may soon be ‘trumping’ (all puns intended), Whatsapp.
The Google Assistant
The reason why this app is like having your own personal assistant is because it is one, albeit virtual of course. Although Whatsapp has unique features of sending across a location, file, picture, audio recording and so on- these are all saved files that are being shared via the app, which makes communication so much closer. However, where Allo differs is that you could be wondering about the travel time to a certain place, or the best available flights to a certain destination or discounts on hotels and all you have to do is type in @google followed your question or order. Next thing you know, it will be providing you with all the details, accompanied by a series of pictures wherever available.
In-message searches
You could be making dinner plans or raving about the hot new song to people on WhatsApp – each time you wish to share and exchange information - you have to close WhatsApp (or run it in the background, if it suits your fancy) and get to a food/music app to copy the concerned links/files to send in the chat. With Google Allo, you can just type @google and ask about prospective restaurants or the particular song in the middle of the chat and it will provide you with the links to both in the chat- so it can be viewed and shared with your contact at your discretion. So it’s saving the user the trouble of temporarily closing the chat to find the relevant data, providing it on screen for both instead.
Automatic Responses
The app can provide automatic responses to messages on behalf of the user. It does this through a software that contains machine-learning technology, which gets better at picking up the user’s most frequently used responses with increased usage of the app. For instance if someone sends you a ‘How are you?’, the app will offer you the automatic response of ‘Good, how about you’ that you can send across. It may seem impersonal at first but it builds up with greater use and is definitely convenient for those who are on the run and are too busy to type out a response.
Picture Recognition
Google has incorporated ‘photo recognition’ in this app, making it possible for it to recognize a received picture and suggest an automatic response. For example, if someone sends you a picture of a sunset, it will suggest ‘beautiful’ or ‘wow’ as a response, depending on your maximum usage of either, from which you can choose the more applicable one and send it across.
Selective end to end encryption
While both Whatsapp and Allo offer end to end encryption for chats, the latter allows for ‘selective end to end encryption’, which means that you can select the contact you want to chat with in incognito mode, through its ‘Incognito Chat’ option. Along with this, the chat history will disappear after you have finished the talk, depending on the expiration period you have set. In case, you have switched off your expiration period, the chats won't disappear.
Text formatting and more advanced features
Google Allo allows you to format your text and send across larger and smaller font sizes of text messages, allowing you to increase or decrease the text size by sliding the send button up and down respectively, a feature that Whatsapp does not allow. It also has a wider array of sticker-collection and even allows the user to scribble on pictures before sending it across.
It’s got the Google brand tagline
Of course, WhatsApp has been acquired by Facebook, but Google Allo is a pure Google creation. The intention behind not incorporating features like direct calling or video calls is to redirect users to other Google apps like Duo and Hangouts. It has the power of the sworn-by ‘google search’ both inside and outside a chat-box and also makes communication easier and much more secure for the user.
# Best features
# Best features
All your messages will be encrypted between your device and Google’s servers — in the same way that your Hangouts and Gmail data is — but once they’ve made their way to Google’s servers, the company is free to access them.
That means Allo conversations will also be accessible to law enforcement agencies by default. Google has previously insisted, however, that it will not grant access to your data as the result of a subpoena; “we believe a warrant is required by the Fourth Amendment.”
Google backtracked on earlier promises to make Allo’s smart reply feature possible, according to The Verge. Like all learning systems, it requires access to your data to learn more about you, and to suggest replies that you’ll actually find useful.
Unveiled at Google I/O back in May, Allo replaces Google Hangouts, and it comes with a big focus on simplicity. You don’t need a new account to start using it, so it’s super simply to setup, and it has almost as many features as Messages in iOS 10.
Allo, the exciting new messaging platform from Google, landed on Android and iOS today — but you might want to think twice before you rush to download it. Every conversation you have with Allo will be logged by Google (unless you remember to go incognito).
Allo also has the new Google Assistant built-in, so not only can you use it to chat to friends, but you can put it to work by feeding it commands like “find sushi places nearby,” “what’s the weather like in New York City today,” and “show me funny cat videos.”
