7 of the most requested Allo features (and whether they’ll actually make it into the app)
It’s no secret that there’s still a lot of work to be done on Allo. Google got the core of their experience off the ground, however users have been requesting additional features that could only help to enhance the service.
Thankfully, the app’s lead developer isn’t shy about acknowledging them. Justin Uberti has listed the 7 most request Allo features. In no way does his publicizing the list mean any or all of these featues will eventually make it in, but it’s nice to see what folks are clamoring to have. Let’s take a look at all of them and their probably of making it into the Allo app:
- Assistant Features: Not an unreasonable request, but also one that will obviously be fulfilled. Google Assistant’s “preview” tag already confirms it’s not 100% ready, and Google has expressed their desire for Assistant to be an ever-growing entity since announcing it at Google I/O.
- Desktop App: Allo was never meant to be a Hangouts replacement, it seems, so we’re not sure a desktop companion will ever arrive. Coupled with the belief that Google wants Allo to be geared toward mobile — something that’s supported by the fact that it uses phone numbers for registration and currently doesn’t allow usage across multiple devices — we’ll opt not to hold our breath on this one.
- Duo Integration: Allo was always seen as the perfect companion for Duo, and Uberti has expressed plans to get better integration between the two in the past. Mark this one as a go
- File Sharing: Allo already has photo sharing, but full-fledged document sharing is becoming standard in any premier messaging app. It’s unclear if Google will ever want to overcomplicate their experience with anything like Google Drive integration, but it’ll need more than just photos if it wants to be a WhatsApp competitor.
- Quick Reply: The automatic quick response options are nice, but sometimes they aren’t perfect, and we’d think Allo is the perfect app to make use of Android Nougat’s new Quick Reply feature. We see no good reason for Google not to add this (aside from maybe a sly way to showcase Google Assistant’s sublime AI).
- SMS: This is the controversial one. It’s the single biggest issue keeping many from making Allo their go-to app. If Google is suffering any usage issues — and early polls suggest they are — they could cave and add true SMS fallback. We’re going to bet Google is working on better SMS support, especially since Uberti doesn’t seem interested in ruling it out just yet.
- Themes: Google’s “be together, not the same” mantra hasn’t exactly extended to many of their products. Google Keyboard is the only notable situation we can think of where Google allowed free customization of the way an app looks. But mostly, you get what they’re willing to give you. Aside from perhaps a dark mode, we’re going to say the chances of this one are slim.
Note that these requests aren’t ordered by anything other than the order of the alphabet. Uberti isn’t letting loose word on whether any of these are in the works or, if they are, how far along they’ve gotten. But it’s nice to see what’s sitting atop their request list and hopefully it closely matches whatever’s currently written on their priority development board. Which features do you want to see the most?
[via Twitter]