Google's new messaging app Allo available today

[Becky]

Say hello to Allo, the new messaging app from Google. There are many messaging apps on the market - WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, SnapChat... heck, even good ol' fashioned text messages! What sets this one apart? The USP that Google has with Allo is that you can access Google's AI through the app, directly in messaging. The AI will suggest certain replies to messages, aimed at saving time if you're in a hurry, and you can also ask the AI direct questions in the message conversation. For example, you can ask it what the weather is going to be like tomorrow.

The downside of this, however, is the feeling that Google knows everything about you.

It seems that public opinion is already divided:

It’s a little creepy to willingly let Google’s AI read your conversations, especially if you’re concerned about your privacy, but I say it’s completely worth it for the level of convenience that it adds. If you’re having conversations about classified or sensitive information, there are probably better apps out there for you to use.

- Gizmodo

Edward Snowden has warned people not to use Google’s new chat app, because it lets the company read everything that they say.

Google has finally released its new chat app after showing it off over the summer. It comes with a robot that watches everything people say and then stores it for later analysis, using that data to improve the app itself.

- The Independent


What is your opinion? A useful tool, or an invasion of privacy that should be avoided?

 

[V_R]

i'm very much in two minds. It will be awesome but I'd feel like I'm being watched. But then again it will be impossible to get everyone to move over from Whatsapp anyway!

 

[muckshifter]

hmmm, Google already knows anything of interest about you, so to does the government, any foreign government (USA) especially if you mention the word Bomb and all Alien life forms.

As for being a useful tool, I dunno. I just 'phone' people I want to talk to, if they not answering, their phone will tell them I called. ... wonder who's listen on that frequency?

 

[Becky]

But then again it will be impossible to get everyone to move over from Whatsapp anyway!

Yeah, exactly! I don't understand the appeal of WhatsApp anyway, the only reason I use it is because everyone else does. That being said I won't be making a hasty move to Allo...

 

[V_R]

WhatsApp is great! I send about 3 texts a month. But I WhatsApp constantly!

New update soon for gif support and more so it'll be even better.

 

[Urmas]

The AI will suggest certain replies to messages...

Igitt!

 

[bootneck02]

I don't use Google

 

[Taffycat]

I have always understood that the internet is not a private place, and that we leave cyber-footprints of our browsing, social-media activities, emails, or whatever. But even so, it does seem as if Google has become a little more like "Big Brother" over time.

It just seems to want to be very controlling. When you examine the extensive list of mergers and acquisitions by Google over the years, I guess it's not hard to understand their desire to tag or follow an individual who has only one, rather than multiple-identities, on different Google-owned websites. Such as the occasion when Google decided to prevent us from leaving comments on YouTube (for example) unless we agreed to sign-up to Google+. Yes, I know that they have relented a little on that one, providing one agrees to use a single identity "for everything Google-related."

To me, Google feels as if it has has gone from being just a cheerful-looking, efficient search engine, to a major busybody. Let's just say that when possible, I prefer to seek out alternatives, before automatically going with a Google-owned product, so it's pretty unlikely that I will bother to try Allo.

 

[bootneck02]

I do not use Google, I use a engine called Start Page and also Firefox but mostly Start Page