Google Allo—Google’s new IM app—arrives with “Google Assistant” in tow

Google makes yet another attempt at instant messaging—this time with a cloud twist.

Ron Amadeo

• Bother the Google Assistant for things like recipes.

• Draw on pictures or use a sticker.

• Smart Reply can type for you.

• Incognito mode keeps your chats off Google.

Four months after announcing the product at Google I/O, Google Allo has finally launched. Allo is yet another attempt at a Google instant messaging platform, and while Google insists it won't shut down its current IM product, Google Hangouts, it's hard to imagine the new thing not replacing the old thing.

So what makes Allo different? The sales pitch is that Allo is an IM client with a Google cloud twist. Like Google Inbox, there's a "smart reply" feature that scans the current chat and generates several pre-typed responses using Google's cloud-powered machine learning. For instance, at a very basic level, if Google detects a "yes" or "no" question, you'll get "yes" or "no" buttons to reply with above the keyboard. Google says that smart reply will "improve over time and adjust to your style."

The other cloud-powered feature is the Google Assistant, which is Google's new chatbot technology that lets you perform Google queries and see results right inside a chat window. This can be things like asking questions, showing a plane flight, or finding nearby restaurants. While you can do all of this at Google.com, doing it inside Allo means you can collaborate with a friend. Being able to do things like browse restaurant results together sounds like a great way to make dinner plans.

Allo also has an "Incognito mode" that will encrypt your chat session end-to-end and promises to not store it on a Google server. Encryption is an optional mode, though, not a default. There's also SMS support for your friends that aren't on Allo (which is everyone right now), lots of stickers, and the ability to take a picture and draw on it.

The rest of Allo is pretty much your standard messaging app. It doesn't use your Google account, though—you "sign in" with a phone number, and it doesn't know who you or any of your friends are, which is rather odd. There's also a big deal breaker for some people: client support. Google is currently rolling out clients for Android and iOS, and that's it. There are no desktop or Web clients.