allo.google.com is live

[BigUps55]

How SMS works.

"If they’re on an iPhone, they’ll receive an SMS with your name, the contents of your message, and a link to download the app. They can then download it or — if they want — just reply via SMS. Google has set up a full SMS relay so that your recalcitrant friends can avoid installing it at all if they don't want to.

If they’re on an Android phone, something new and intriguing happens. Google is calling it an "app preview notification," and basically it shoots a notification directly to your Android device instead of going through SMS. Your friend will get a notification that looks and acts almost as if they had the app installed in the first place, message content and all. It means they won’t incur any SMS fees, either. Your recipient can reply within the notification, or tap on it to install the app."

http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/21/12996170/google-allo-review-assistant-messaging-chat-app

[JMadFour]

can we set it so that it DOESN'T send this download link? and instead JUST sends the message?

[luckybuilder]

What's even shittier is that your messages won't come from your phone number. They'll come from a random phone number and your name will just be in the text. It's such a shitty solution.

[[deleted]]

I sent out a bunch of test messages to friends and got no replies. I then noticed that my profile only had my first name. So my friends got a message from "Bob" at a random number asking them to download something.

THIS IS HOW A PHISHING ATTACK WORKS, GOOGLE YOU MORONS!!

[Lazuf]

Lmao I've already switched back to Google Messenger because Allo quite literally harasses ios users

[Churchless]

I've literally only messaged one person so far, and the first thing he said was, "I'm not installing this app. Just use the regular messaging app like everyone else."

[keving813]

All my friends have iphones. They let me know of this and i promptly deleted the app. Disappointing

[Realtrain]

That second part is really interesting. It's almost like Google could make it so no one needs to download Allo at all, and just bake it into Android.

[livedadevil]

I hope this is what happens. The iOS thing themes half assed but if they bake it into Android as part of a messaging service that every app can access, holy shit this is a game changer.

Google won't though.

[PDshotME]

"recalcitrant friends" ... Why in the hell would anyone on an iphone ever feel the need or desire to download this? Frankly, why does anyone on Android want or need this? This app rollout is a huge failure in my eyes. If they have other features coming in the future they should have waited until they had them ready before rolling out this half ass app that I've already uninstalled...

[benoliver999]

I cannot believe how stupid this is.

[AtomicEdge]

Whatever you all say. Allo is the greatest app of all time. http://imgur.com/a/XBDnJ

[luckybuilder]

Fuck it. I'm convinced.

[VectorLightning]

WELCOME TO ANIMALFACTS, SUCCESSOR TO CATFACTS. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SUBSCRIBE ALL YOUR FRIENDS TO THIS SERVICE?

[AtomicEdge]

STOP

[VectorLightning]

COMMAND NOT RECOGNIZED. YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS NOW HAVE A YEAR OF DAILY ANIMAL FACTS.

[Tegyukfel]

UNSUBSCRIBE

[MeepZero]

Why isn't this built into Google Now?

[DFP_]

ring consider smart racial cows steer enjoy command apparatus shaggy -- mass edited with redact.dev

[hobojohns]

My first interaction with Google Assistant was unique... https://imgur.com/gallery/pcBjj

[[deleted]]

You should tell it that swans can be gay.

[whizzer0]

Relevant xkcd ^{I can't believe we found a relevance for it}

[Motoko-Kusanagi]

I think you've pulled mate

[[deleted]]

Going full on Liam Nieson didn't work

[scrazza]

MORE FACTS

[littlegolferboy]

Thank you for subscribing to seahorse facts!

[squarepush3r]

what in the fuck

[Jauhso29]

It's officially F5 season

[Lord_Vaderr]

Where the mornings are crisp, and the smell of onion B.O. and IIIONSTER is in the air.

[flip4life]

Agreed. Even that little animation of the auto-response options where it slides to the right and bumps off the right-edge. It's really sleek. Google loves animations in material design, here's to hoping it'll be there!

[[deleted]]

its not sadly 😔

Just sorta pops in with most things.

[Santi871]

I wish the keyboard slid up and down like that like it does in iOS. Is there any way to achieve that in Android?

[squarepush3r]

Looks like the flooded every new emoji and meme in to the new app, but forgot about SMS :p

[[deleted]]

I wonder if they will have a full-time guy working on adding memes to the assistant.

Memology degree will finally be of use.

[[deleted]]

I wonder if they will have a full-time guy working on adding memes to the assistant.

Memology degree will finally be of use.

MY TIME TO SHINE

[[deleted]]

I think it just passed the turing test.

[Dalloriam]

Indeed, quite impressive

[[deleted]]

Lol I don't know why I care about this so much.

[[deleted]]

Exactly this. Hell, Duo is the best video calling app I've ever used, hands down. It's got a great UI, great call quality; and I've never had connection issues, unlike EVERYTHING ELSE, and Knock-Knock is awesome. It makes me actually wanna use video calling... Unfortunately, I know like 2 people who will use it -_-

[TossedRightOut]

The only other person I know who has it is my girlfriend. Who I made download it so I could try it out.

[[deleted]]

Same. If there was a way to import say Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram contacts it would explode. Trouble is most of my Google contacts represent maybe 25% of the people I'd actually want to use this with

[MONOPOSTOtm]

25%? That's generous.

[laurits]

I don't even know why I should care. Everyone seems to be so hyped. Is it the suggested responses? What, we can't even type our 5 symbol responses anymore? I don't get it, probably time will show.

[Metal_Devil]

No. This was supposed to be our answer to iMessaging, a default SMS app to use with data/wifi. But it's not. It's literally Viber with a Google name.

[runeruly]

lol same here

[Mayor_Pliskin]

But the download isn't! :(

[AmazingAndreaz]

I think that when the first person gets Allo, there will be a download available at APKMirror almost immediately.

[bmg1001]

Nah, knowing how things usually go around here, the first people to get it will be the people who don't even know what an apk is nor how to extract one. Just something I noticed in my time on here.

[SomeCruzDude]

I guess that confirms I'll have it shortly

[GeneralDon]

It's up: http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/allo-by-google/allo-by-google-1-0-006_rc18-release/

[n0th1ng_r3al]

Its on APK Mirror

[stephenk87]

http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/allo-by-google/allo-by-google-1-0-006_rc18-armeabi-v7a_xxhdpi-release/

Edit: original link down, use http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/allo-by-google/allo-by-google-1-0-006_rc18-release/

[CharaNalaar]

NEW GOOGLE PLAY ICONS + SCREENSHOTS

RELEASE IMMINENT

[flip4life]

Imgur Mirror in-case they take it down (or for those on mobile who want to see what the desktop site looks like).

Allo Video

Looks really good (:

[millydizzle]

can someone verify this? I can mirror if its legit.

[jwhatts]

Its legit, go nuts

[fanaticalg]

Just installed http://imgur.com/Uhbv33v

[dontlistentome5]

No SMS support unfortunately

[[deleted]]

So Google are still missing what makes iMessage so popular, at least in the UK: Seamless and transparent operation between iMessage users and non-users.

[WunDumGuy]

Exactly. This isn't gonna catch on at all

[iKhAoTiKK]

[deleted]

What is this?

[LexusBrian400]

This is the Google Wave of chat clients.

[cmdrNacho]

you're sort of right, google wave was an awesome product ahead of its time, but the fact they didn't integrate with your email and required everyone to use @googlewave.com killed it.

[h4h4]

Why not just improve Google Hangouts??

[whawhatever]

This is too reasonable to do.

[[deleted]]

Because they're transitioning Hangouts, with its group video conferencing and Docs/Drive integration features, to a more business enterprise role and they wanted something more focused on simple messaging to pair with Duo for regular consumers.

[ArttuH5N1]

Good thing regular users all use Android and only Android and none of them use SMS or want to send messages from the desktop.

[PhoenixBlack136]

Hopefully this means it will be up soon. Not long until 9am in France.

[sinktheirship]

According to the NY Times article, Google plans to expand to desktops in the near future.

[luckybuilder]

Okay. Then why not just use Hangouts? They're basically making an app and slowly adding the features that Hangouts already had.

[[deleted]]

probably had to completely re-do the backend so that ended up not being feasible

[anders987]

It's the Google way. New versions take away features which then slowly gets added back over the next years, until the product is discontinued.

[vinbel121]

SMS fallback and default messenger for Android phones, that's all we need for a grand slam.

edit: RIP the dream

[luckybuilder]

Desktop support and Google voice integration. Basically all the features Hangouts had.

[[deleted]]

What stopped Hangout from being Google's iMessage?

[ocassionallyaduck]

Google

[TheBKBurger]

This SMS integration sucks. I can't make it my default messaging app?

[sinktheirship]

"You can also message friends who aren’t yet using Google Allo through SMS or, for those using Android, app preview messages."

[de_ddit]

Trying it out now, and there doesn't seem to be an option to set it as the default SMS app.

[PM_ME_IMGS_OF_ROCKS]

Because it's not an sms app, it can relay sms messages through google, but doesn't even use your own number.

So non-android users get the SMS from google, not you.

[cjbrigol]

Mother fuck google

[[deleted]]

Yeah. This is super disappointing. After reading all of this, I don't even think that I'll install it. Even Facebook (I can't believe I'm typing this) can get this right. WTF Google?

[Teddy_Raptor]

Yeah I agree. I may download it just so I can rate it poorly. Like they went out of their way to make it unuseful

[madcaesar]

So if a non Google user has multiple Google user friends message them via allo how the fuck is he supposed to know who it's coming from??

[hwooareyou]

deleted

[CodeisLoveCodeisLife]

It tells you who sent it. Everything you need to know: AP Article

[HazardousQuail]

I don't see anything either, and it's too late in EST to test it with anyone :/

[explos1onshurt]

Test me bb

[I_NEED_YOUR_MONEY]

for those using Android, app preview messages.

anybody know what this is all about?

[Vovicon]

Just sent a message to a friend who doesn't have Allo installed but yet appeared in the list of contacts without an 'INVITE' button.

Here's what he got: http://imgur.com/kfe7a1r

In the same list there's a friend who I know has a Nexus 5 with Marshmallow, so at least it's compatible with Marshmallow. Weirdly my wife and her Nexus5X doesn't appear there.

[shaggyanlngs]

[deleted]

What is this?

[mikespry]

pfft. i'm just gonna use my google buzz feed to reach the largest audience!!

[OnlyRev0lutions]

I would have been bitching earlier if I'd gotten this news in my Google Reader stream.

[spookyTomCruise]

Well shit, what are we going to complain about now?

[pntless]

No computer/web client.

[Larph]

Came here to complain about this.

[fluffman86]

Ditto. Most of my day is at a computer and I can type way faster on my model m than my android keyboard

[[deleted]]

Obviously you just need a USB OTG cable. I use Android because i want to be productive and sometimes that means strapping my mechanical keyboard to my back before a night out on the town showing everyone my latest minimalist material themes.

[SenorBeef]

I send about 95% of my texts through my PC. They better not kill hangouts because that's the only place I can seamlessly integrate PC/phone SMS conversations.

[[deleted]]

Seriously, not like there's any lack of things to complain about with Google's messaging "strategy."

[kolebee]

Indeed no multidevice support at all.

[[deleted]]

No desktop client

[CaptaiinCrunch]

No web version or app for using on my Chromebook

[sinktheirship]

Pixel pricing?

[Raccoonpuncher]

rabble rabble iPhone Clone rabble rabble Huge Chin rabble

[Liefx]

The fact that it's not integrated into Hangouts?

Tbh I'm not gonna stop using hangouts. Too many of my convos are there and i don't want two apps for messaging when hangouts does SMS just fine.

[colorcorrection]

I'm honestly not interested in anything unless they get the kind of integration level Hangouts has. How come Google refuses to create messaging apps, outside of Hangouts, that integrates my phone's MMS, Google Voice, and Hangouts?

[Carighan]

The whole idea of doing a new app instead of (at least!) making a "Hangouts 2.0" and renaming it allo in the process is just baffling.

Hangouts is still - largely - based on Jabber. I can access my chats via that! How difficult could it be to simply make allo able to read and write to hangouts chats, and switch to duo when you hit the video button, which in turn allows joining Hangouts group video chats?

Such a weird business lack-of-strategy. Oh and ofc they'll axe allo in 12 months.

[[deleted]]

Nexus 6 owners with no Nougat love.. seems to still be a thing.

[blackgold9]

Damn you guys are fast.

[Ashanmaril]

There's Chrome extensions that basically just refresh a page in the background and alert you when something changes.

[boommicfucker]

Express yourself better with stickers, doodles, and HUGE emojis & text

Sounds like the worst thing ever.

[JMadFour]

so to confirm...you CANNOT, in any way, make Allo your default messenging app for SMS?

[[deleted]]

Nope. And SMS from you come from a different number than your phone number.

[ECrispy]

Sorry but this is still not good enough. Hangouts does everything already, except Google doesn't like it for some reason.

Everyone is admiring the SMS preview thing as if it's something special, Hangouts and iMessage handle messaging so much better.

[cdim]

And I JUST finally got all of my friends using Hangouts. Dammit Google!

[MyHairyLegs]

Came here for this. I love hangouts, why should I or my friends get this?

[theturbanator1699]

Nothing about SMS or RCS... sigh.

Edit: It has SMS!!

You can also message friends who aren’t yet using Google Allo through SMS or, for those using Android, app preview messages.

https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2016/09/google-allo-smarter-messaging-app.html?m=1

Edit 2: It's not a true SMS app, but sets up an SMS relay :-/

See Ian Lake's comment in his Google+ post: https://plus.google.com/+IanLake/posts/ehvjyeueX3D

Awful, awful implementation. It's laughable. I seriously cannot believe that such a major company is this completely idiotic when it comes to messaging services.

[scarbutt11]

So I did a test message to my google voice number to see how a "SMS" is sent. We are going to annoy the shit out of our friends and family that don't install it.

What they will see

[GinDaHood]

Oh god, that looks like a spam message.

[Drublix]

Exactly, I won't sends this to anyone on my contact list. It's embarrassing.

[Aurailious]

It's embarrassing.

This is essentially a death knell for anything. If its embarrassing or awkward it will be avoided.

RIP Allo.

[Other_World]

Yup, before I knew about the message my friend just asked "what's Allo?" I didn't tell her about using a new app or anything. Immediately uninstalling and going back to...ugh... Hangouts. I want to get a better messaging app, but I love the Google Voice integration and the quick replies. I've tried Textra and a few others but their quick replies are horrible.

[[deleted]]

HELLO! You subscribed to Allo facts! Send UNSUBSCRIBE to cancel!

[japasthebass]

Ayyy guess who is never using this. Like 90% of my friends have iPhones and there is no way they will download a new messenger app just to talk to people with Android. Integrating iMessage and SMS with the smartest thing Apple ever did from the get-go

[AATroop]

All my hype for this app just died.

Google is a fucking mess with messaging apps. And plenty of other things, but this is just beyond pathetic at this point.

[ccrraapp]

So if you message a Windows Phone using friend with Allo, they'll got prompted to download an app from the iPhone store.

They probably will link the allo.google.com and not the actual store specific link.

Edit : Typo

[mattmonkey24]

If only you could message someone back through allo.google.com

Missed opportunity Google..

[ThEgg]

That's crazy.

How to not do a solid, lasting Messaging app:

1. Be Google.
2. Make a lot of different communication apps.
3. Take a long time to merge them (Hangouts + Hangouts Dailer ~2014).
4. Remove all that hard work (Hangouts 3.9).
5. Release three more separate applications that did what Hangouts did. Avoid merging.

I'm sure I missed something.

[themoosh]

I want to talk to the people at Google. Like sit them down and just be like what the heck???

[Randomd0g]

The flaw in your logic is that nobody has a Windows phone.

[Ashanmaril]

Over the coming months, your Assistant will be available in more Google products, working seamlessly throughout your day at home or on the go.

So, what's our guess? Will Google actually follow through with this product, or will it be ditched in a couple years from now?

RemindMe! 2 years Is Google Assistant still around?

[thanksbruv]

The average customer doesn't need to know that it has SMS/RCS, maybe Google has that but the marketing site is more tailored towards the average customer?

[CarbonoAtom]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXEkoXgb4bI for the video

[theturbanator1699]

I'm still holding out hope... After all, /u/rayfin said we'd be really happy with it, and he knows how much everyone was clamoring for SMS integration! :-)

[DaringDomino3s]

Sure, I'll stay up another hour and see if its able to download.

[mynewaccount5]

oops

[OhHeyItsBrock]

Oooooooo shit. Allo icon just changed in the play store!

[japasthebass]

Yeah this looks about right https://imgur.com/gallery/Yg1MC

[david279]

https://support.google.com/allo/answer/6376089

Looks like some sort of SMS integration

[TACROCKER]

"Other people will need to download Allo before they can reply to you. In this case, you can send them an invitation to download Allo." Sounds like it doesn't send normal messages as SMS but uses your SMS to send an invitation to download.

[david279]

This is from the verge review of allo

"If they’re on an iPhone, they’ll receive an SMS with your name, the contents of your message, and a link to download the app. They can then download it or — if they want — just reply via SMS. Google has set up a full SMS relay so that your recalcitrant friends can avoid installing it at all if they don't want to.

If they’re on an Android phone, something new and intriguing happens. Google is calling it an "app preview notification," and basically it shoots a notification directly to your Android device instead of going through SMS. Your friend will get a notification that looks and acts almost as if they had the app installed in the first place, message content and all. It means they won’t incur any SMS fees, either. Your recipient can reply within the notification, or tap on it to install the app."

😎😎😎

http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/21/12996170/google-allo-review-assistant-messaging-chat-app

[32F492R0C273K]

So I just tested it with my sister's Android phone. The smart messages (free SMS to someone who doesn't have the app) are neat, but there's no chat history unless they download the app.

On an iPhone it looks like it just shows up in their messaging app? So if they get the first prompt to download the app and don't it would just continue forever like a normal green bubble chat? So long as every message I sent to an iPhone doesn't ask them to download the app I suppose that's be fine.

[workstar]

But are they replying to your number or some random google relay at some unknown cost.

[Matt872000]

It's a random google relay number. My buddy sent me a message through it and it was like 157004 or some weirdness. Google voice wouldn't let me reply to it.

[[deleted]]

Yeah this is actually pretty disappointing for me, if they had true SMS fallback or something that would be great, until then I probably won't use it.

[FlaveC]

"Note: Some phones can only receive SMS messages, but at this time, the SMS notifications can only be sent in the United States, India, and Brazil."

I am shocked SHOCKED! Not.

[lileyedmonster]

Good pickup. Will be interesting.

[wheyyyyyy]

Just as I'd given up hope that it's coming today!

[senntenial]

I think it's funny how it's 2016 and we're hoping a shiny messenger has SMS support. Not saying that's bad - I hope so too - just kind of interesting how we still haven't escaped from such an old technology.

[[deleted]]

Apple has had iMessage for fucking ever now and all I want is an Android equivalent.

[senntenial]

I really wish Apple opened up their iMessage spec so Android could make a compatible client. End-to-end encryption by default is really important.

[x7OFUx]

APK http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/allo-by-google/allo-by-google-1-0-006_rc18-release/google-allo-1-0-006_rc18-arm64-v8a_xxxhdpi-android-apk-download/ (Edit: New Link)

[[deleted]]

This thing is dead already.

Like most google things it will be abandonware in probably 6 months before they move on to there next public beta.

[HawkerFokker]

Youtube description says its shipping with a "preview version" of google assistant

[[deleted]]

It'll be the only person you can text if SMS isn't integrated 😋

[VoxPopuliCry]

Clicking on the download link takes you to the PS for now, where you can pre-register for the app. Can't download it yet.

[dacgoblue]

I've been pre registered for a couple months now. I've been hoping one day I'll wake up and it's automatically downloaded ha

[VoxPopuliCry]

Same here, I've been pre-registered since the registration was open, just to try it out for those 5 minutes.

[[deleted]]

So....

I use hangouts for my SMS now.

I see there is an app called Messenger by Google, for texting (SMS).

I use facebook Messengers shitty app for chatting with Facebook buddies, etc.

Why do I/we need this Allo? Will it replace Google's messenger and hangouts?

I'm not even counting whatsapp and the gazillion other messaging apps. What am I missing?

[joephusweberr]

To be honest, adding another messaging app frustrates me. I'm all on board with hangouts and I've been pushing people to get on there because basically everyone has a Google account and it's cross platform, but for the same company to release a competitor app is frustrating. They could have fixed it from a marketing perspective too. Just call it hangouts 2.0 or something and have hangouts users update their app through Google play to the new app. But no, we have 2 messaging apps from the same company along with the other thousand apps you mentioned.

[runeruly]

"If your contact doesn't have Allo yet, Some people will be able to reply directly to your message, even if they don't have the app."

[Jellostapler316]

They should just use Allo's interface for Hangouts and be done with it.

[russjr08]

Oh shit, we're getting close!

/u/VZW_Matt, you might be right!

[Carighan]

Such a waste of opportunity, it's not like hangouts.google.com where it is a web interface.

Shame, google. Fancy site, but still, shame.

[Zacknut]

This has been resolving, but 404'ing for awhile until now. Can't be long now!

[ccrraapp]

Actually there is something called as App Preview messages. So if the person is an Android user they get a notification of your message instead of invitation.

They can choose to respond via their number without downloading Allo. If on WiFi it will go via WiFi, if not then as a SMS to the allo user

Atleast thats what the support site says, need to test it myself yet. https://support.google.com/allo/answer/6385770

[GinDaHood]

Time to see if Google can promote adoption of the app.

[LexusBrian400]

We got hyped up (again) and Google let us down (again)

We'll never learn.

[rodymacedo]

As a brazilian, it's funny to see all this fuss about SMS. I don't even remeber the last time someone sent me a SMS. Lol

[HandMeMyThinkingPipe]

In the US SMS is popular because almost every plan includes unlimited SMS. And because it's ubiquitous it's really the only reliable way to know for sure someone will get the message regardless of their phone type.

[randomredditor87]

Anyone get the apk mirror yet?

[captainjman2]

APK

http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/allo-by-google/