Google’s Allo puts AI in a messaging app

Google has introduced a new messaging app today called Allo. It’s not a Hangouts replacement, but a completely standalone app that looks kind of like Facebook Messenger. Indeed, it follows Facebook’s model, complete with some machine learning, courtesy of Google’s newly announced personal assistant. As Google engineering director Erik Kay explained on stage during today’s I/O keynote, Allo is a smart messaging app that “learns over time” to make conversations easier and more productive.

Like a lot of messaging apps, Allo has something called Expressions. These look to be an amped up version of emojis and stickers. For example, Kay demonstrated something called Whisper Shout — sliding your finger down will result in a small-text “whisper” while sliding it up will prompt a large-text “shout.” You can also send full-bleed photos, with the ability to doodle over it like you can on Snapchat. Interestingly, Allo is based on your phone number — you sign up with it. Connecting Allo to your Google account is completely optional.

Another neat feature is something called Smart Reply, which utilizes some of that machine learning mentioned earlier. So if someone says “Dinner later?” it’ll automatically suggest options like “I’m in!” or “I’m busy,” anticipating what you want to say next. The more you use it, Kay says, the better the app will be. Smart Replies can include emojis and stickers too.

The really cool part is that Smart Replies even works in response to photos. Allo builds upon Google’s computer vision capabilities to understand the context and content of images. It’ll understand that your friend just sent a photo of a dog, and even the breed of it. So an automated Smart Reply would be something like “Cute dog!” It’d suggest “Yummy” or “I love clams!” to a photo of clam linguine.

Google Assistant also plays a role here. It functions similarly to the chatbot idea espoused by Microsoft and Facebook, but appears to be a lot more automated. So if someone says they want Italian food for dinner, a Smart Reply will automatically show up suggesting to make a dinner reservation. Tap that and you’ll see a restaurant reservation card that’ll show a list of restaurants nearby. From there you can tap links to see info like Opening Hours and Location. Then you can select “make a reservation” and it’ll do so via OpenTable.

You can also just call up Google Assistant just by hitting “@google” while you’re chatting, to bring up search, so you can share funny GIFs with friends, for example. You can also just chat with the Google Assistant directly if you want deeper information. On stage, Google demonstrated an example of someone looking up the scores of Real Madrid, instantly recognizing that the person using it was already a Real Madrid fan. It brought up scores, the roster and also the profiles of each player.

If you like, you can also play games with the Google Assistant in Allo. “Emoji Games” is one where you’re to guess a movie based on a string of emojis. There are also more games to come, depending on what developers come up with.

Just like Chrome, Allo has an Incognito mode if you want your messages to be private and secure. It has end-to-end encryption, private notifications and expiring chats. If you delete an incognito conversation on Allo, it’s gone forever.

Allo will be available for both Android and iOS later this summer.

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Source: Google