Gadgetory

hello again ladies and gentlemen I'm Joe handy the Android authority app guy and folks we've been waiting a long time for this one so what is Google allo exactly it's a messaging platform similar to whatsapp or iMessage that allows you to send messages to people the application uses your phone number as a screen name and you can actually text people over SMS although the application doesn't register itself as a texting app so you won't be getting rid of your default anytime soon when you first open the application you'll be greeted with a clean white screen that will list your chats if you have any Google assistant is there from the moment you first open the app but you can delete that conversation and ignore it if you really want to although we can't imagine why you would you can open the menu from the left side which shows you a fairly basic set of controls including your blocked contacts settings and profile information in the settings you'll have your typical stuff like setting ringtones and you can unregister your phone number if you don't want to use the service anymore let's get into what a lo can do to start with the messaging platform is deceptively simple you can engage with any person you have a phone number for although they won't see any special features unless they're also using the app they won't see your actual phone number if they're not using a lo but we'll talk about that more here in a minute if everyone in the chat is using ello you'll have a variety of fun and clever little things that you can do you can paint Google assistant in any chat and ask for whatever you want but we'll talk more about the kinds of things that Google assistant can do here later on top of that you'll be able to do these standard stuff like snap a photo to send share images share your location and there are a collection of stickers that you can send you can also manage your sticker sets download more or delete the ones that you have right through the app if you send images you can use the ink feature to doodle on them to make them a little more fun there are also some goofy little features that aren't really useful but they're fun for instance when you send a message you can press and drag the send button to make the speech bubbles bigger or smaller this is to simulate things like shouting or whispering and adds a bit of a twist to normal conversation you can also start group chats by inviting a bunch of people to chat with you it's nothing special and acts just like a normal allo chat except there are more than two people in it the last big feature is incognito mode this is an encrypted messaging feature that allows you to chat with people in complete privacy and here Google data collection is turned off and you can't even ping Google assistant you can set messages to expire after a set time finally you can click the recipients image in the top right corner to mute the chat to clear the history and view additional chat details overall it's a very simple application that doesn't take long to learn this entire app revolves around Google assistant for those who don't know Google assistant is Google's new virtual assistant that's kind of like Google now but in a text about format you'll ask it questions and talk to it and it will answer questions and talk back at this time you can paint Google assistant in any non incognito chat that you have going to utilizes features you can also have a chat with just Google assistant and it can do a range of things you can ask it for the weather and it'll deliver the weather you can ask it for the latest NHL news and it'll deliver the latest NHL news it doesn't work with every single request but it does work enough of the time to make it a lot of fun to use and a little bit impressive it can do a lot of ultimately useless stuff like tell jokes or play games but it can also do stuff like find airplane flights set timers find restaurants nearby check your calendar and all sorts of other stuff you can check it out for yourself by opening a chat with Google assistant and simply asking it what it can do on top of that you can configure the bot to know more about you by having it ask you questions my Google assistant knows that my favorite color is green and that my favorite food is tacos it's a small thing but it's kind of nifty and it'll come up every now and again if you answer enough questions perhaps my favorite feature of Google assistant is the subscriptions feature if you ask it for the weather it'll tell you the weather you can then ask it to send you that information every single day at a certain time thus I have my Google assistant send me the weather forecast every morning at 10 a.m. and the latest NHO headlines every evening at 7 p.m. you can also manage subscriptions simply by asking the total list of things that Google assistant is capable of doing as far too long to list here but you can ask at any time you want to and it will always answer it's surprisingly fun to use and easily the best chat bot that I personally have ever seen not everything in aloe is sunshine and rainbows and there are some curious emissions that don't make much sense even for an application that's brand new for instance the application isn't overly customizable you can connect to your Google account but you won't be able to get ahold of anybody unless you have their phone number there is also no theming and no dark mode when you combine that with the simplistic look and feel of the application it's actually just a little bit boring and the bright white just kills your battery if you have an AMOLED screen and use the app frequently despite its ability to field and answer text messages you actually cannot use it as a stock texting app this is because a low doesn't actually use your phone number when texting non allo recipients people getting messages from Allah will get a random five digit number that doesn't belong to you and we really don't understand why this isn't a thing that's allowed there is something to be said about how Google is going to skim every single message you send here that isn't in incognito mode the privacy crowd is really bothered by it although your personal feelings may be different it's not ideal but it is required for Google assistant to work properly lastly the superfluous nature of the application itself can't be seen as a negative thing hangouts works perfectly fine and we honestly can't see people leaving whatsapp Facebook Messenger or other popular messaging apps for something like a low if you're not into Google assistant this app really doesn't offer you anything overall ello is a very fun idea but it does feel like just an idea as opposed to a completed and polished product messages send wicked fast and Google assistant is so much fun to use ello could easily be an iMessage replacement with stronger as semester ports and a little bit of tweaking the good news is that the application is simple and virtually anybody can pick it up and use it the bad news is that it may be too simple in places where it could have used a little bit more when it's going to end up being like and how successful it is really is up for grabs right now but it'll be a whole lot of fun to see how it turns out and that about does it for this one folks if you want to keep watching we have our latest Android apps weekly show linked up there on the screen and in the video description below don't forget to check out the written version which is also linked in the video description below and keep it tuned to android authority because we are your source for all things Android thanks again for watching everybody and have a wonderful day you