re: Google Allo leaked

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but are we at the point that we can do without it? i know i can, but what about when i want to communicate with my mom who is tech illiterate and uses the stock texting app on her phone?

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I think Google is making it as easy as possible by showing the recipient a notification as if from an installed app, and which gives the option to install Allo. People learn things when they want to or have to. She learned Android and texting.



It just bugs me when people insist on SMS support in every messaging app. It's probably the same people who complain about their texts not being delivered or disappearing or whatever. Everyone looks at iMessage as the gold standard for integrating a chat app with SMS, but they overlook all the trouble it has caused. People not getting their texts when they switch to Android. Android users not getting messages when in groups with iPhone users. It's just a shitshow caused by trying to integrate SMS into things it wasn't meant for.

Everybody wants SMS because it's ubiquitous, but these days it's essentially useless. And it doesn't look like all the carriers are going to move to a new standard (RCS?) anytime soon, so people have to use apps. Then the new problem is vendor lockin/reliance. I'm not sure this new problem is worth it.

Is there some kind of software patent reason why Google doesn't just do what iMessage does?


You send a message from iMessage, iMessage looks up if that phone number is registered to an Apple ID with an iPhone, if it does, it sends it over iMessage, if it doesn't, then sends it over SMS.

So all Allo needs to do is check if someone has registered with Allo and send over Allo if so, and if not, send over SMS instead. If the Allo recipient hasn't received the message within a certain amount of time, start falling back to SMS instead (if they uninstalled it or got rid of that phone or whatever).

As an iPhone user, I see no reason to install Allo, and if my friends started messaging me over Allo and I was getting requests to install it, I would be fricking annoyed. And I'm definitely not going to message friends through a proxy number where another middleman could intercept my messages.

Isn't the whole point seamless integration?


(edit: you responded blasting iMessage before I posted this )

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how is this different from hangouts?

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I don't use/have never used Hangouts. But if that's what Hangouts does, what was the appeal for people wanting Allo?

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It just bugs me when people insist on SMS support in every messaging app. It's probably the same people who complain about their texts not being delivered or disappearing or whatever. Everyone looks at iMessage as the gold standard for integrating a chat app with SMS, but they overlook all the trouble it has caused. People not getting their texts when they switch to Android. Android users not getting messages when in groups with iPhone users. It's just a shitshow caused by trying to integrate SMS into things it wasn't meant for.

Everybody wants SMS because it's ubiquitous, but these days it's essentially useless. And it doesn't look like all the carriers are going to move to a new standard (RCS?) anytime soon, so people have to use apps. Then the new problem is vendor lockin/reliance. I'm not sure this new problem is worth it.

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I don't understand. You say SMS is useless but it's obviously the only choice for real cross-platform messaging. That doesn't make it very useless to me?

If you want to use a single app for messaging, and still be cross-platform, while still having more advanced features available than SMS, don't you pretty much have to find some way of doing SMS integration on top of your new messaging platform?

edit: Yes, the issue with Apple->Android converts was there, but that was more Apple's fault for not falling back properly than an issue with the way they were doing it

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Just give us an all in one chat app and a damn gboard

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I honestly don't even understand what Allo is supposed to do that the Messenger stock app doesn't, but that's just my ignorance on the topic.

Hell, I don't even know the difference between Messenger and Hangouts...and now Allo.

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I don't understand. You say SMS is useless but it's obviously the only choice for real cross-platform messaging. That doesn't make it very useless to me?

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SMS is useless for the way people text today. Like I said earlier, no read receipts, no formatting, hacky group messaging, etc.

As for cross-platform... there is no "true" cross-platform messaging system when you consider the browser a platform. Hangouts is close, it works in the browser and on Android and iPhone, but feature phones are left out. SMS works on feature phones and smartphones, but not the browser. Allo only works on smartphones. iMessage only works on iPhone.

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If you want to use a single app for messaging, and still be cross-platform, while still having more advanced features available than SMS, don't you pretty much have to find some way of doing SMS integration on top of your new messaging platform?

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Why? Whatsapp did it without SMS.

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edit: Yes, the issue with Apple->Android converts was there, but that was more Apple's fault for not falling back properly than an issue with the way they were doing it

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Apple could have handled it better, no doubt. But IMO part of the reason they didn't handle it better is because they tried to make the experience seamless, and I just don't think that's possible when trying to integrate SMS support into a more modern platform.

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Also, can't set it as default messaging app so if anyone tries to text you it will go to your normal messaging app and not allo

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Yea, I couldn't figure out how to set it to default. Luckily, I won't have to.

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I honestly don't even understand what Allo is supposed to do that the Messenger stock app doesn't, but that's just my ignorance on the topic.

Hell, I don't even know the difference between Messenger and Hangouts...and now Allo.

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The Messenger app just does SMS, which is just short text-only messages sent via your cell carrier. It's the same service Nokia phones used for texting 15 years ago. Hangouts, Allo, iMessage, etc. are chat apps that use internet data to send messages. Hangouts and iMessage can send regular SMS messages, but it can get messy. On Hangouts, you have to choose whether you want to send via SMS or standard hangouts, which isn't exactly user-friendly. iMessage chooses for you based on whether the recipient is also registered with iMessage, which is user-friendly but problems arise when people stop using iMessage.


I'm not sure if I helped you or confused you more.

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On Hangouts, you have to choose whether you want to send via SMS or standard hangouts, which isn't exactly user-friendly.

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don't you only make this decision the very first time you send something to them? not each time you send a message.