I understand everyone 's complains about this but one example I 've had seems to fly in the fac...

[G+_Ken H]

I understand everyone's complains about this but one example I've had seems to fly in the face of people saying this won't be adopted. My example was after I installed Allo I just messaged my mom (not a geek by any means) saying "Hi Mom" & soon after she created her profile using her number & her selfie & the conversation switched to an Allo one. I didn't even prompt her to install it. The app just did that in the background (well to me anyway, I know on her end she saw a link it generated & she chose to join up).

 

This is much better than years back when I was practically begging people to use Hangouts. I believe it now that taking the WhatsApp approach of only requiring your phone number to use Allo is the best way to do this. It's such a low barrier to using it that it even makes sense to all the moms out there. GG Google?

[G+_Mike Trieu (MegasChara)]

Yes, the Google Play Services tie-in is definitely the coup Google needs to rapidly onboard the critical mass of new users. The question is, if Allo dominates the competition solely because that bit of favoritism within its own OS, might they eventually get slapped with an anti-trust suit from the likes of Facebook, et al?

[G+_Paul Werner]

Mike Trieu she uses an iPhone so no Google Play Services there

[G+_Cédric Berger]

Could not try that, since for me in France, there is no sms relay (yet?), Allo just opens my sms app to send an invite.

And if I tried with my fiancee, she might try to install but would have a not enough memory error (HTC one S), not enough room for 1 more app. She could uninstall Hangouts but then would miss it in other cases...

[G+_John Harrington]

This also doesn't change the cross platform issue. Your not going to convince people to use a second messaging app just to talk to you. Also Allo is a huge spying tool and archives everything you say in Allo and to Google Assistant unless you use the incognito message even then I'm sure Google stores it in some way. It's just not worth all of that. I will stick to the old outdated SMS

[G+_Paul Werner]

John Harrington I just gave an example of someone installing it "just to talk to me" without me even trying to convince her though. I know it's anecdotal but I just brought it up because I would have never been able to do that with something that requires an account like Hangouts. People that don't care about cross platform (ie my mom) won't even think about the fact that it's missing (for now).

 

Regarding spying, that's your preference but I would think via the many other ways Google finds things out about people that they have a good amount on you regardless if you're sticking to outdated SMS or not

[G+_Robert Blank]

Paul Werner I'm not sure if tapping a random link to install an app from a text message is really a wise thing to do for a person that is admittedly not a tech-geek. My wife and my parents fit that description, and I always tell them not to click on links if they didn't request it or weren't expecting one, even if it appears to be coming from me.

[G+_Chris Clark]

John Harrington So you think that SMS isn't a big "spying" tool? Your carrier will give law enforcement every single text message you've ever sent without blinking an eye. Allo at least allows for an incognito mode if you start talking about something you don't want to come back to you. SMS is a horribly insecure messaging protocol that can and IS being accessed by the government.

 

Also, you can convince people to switch if you do it right and show the benefits. I've gotten two people on Allo in 24 hours.

[G+_Paul Werner]

Robert Blank I understand that but you can also warn them before the first message comes if you really want them to switch. If you don't care and they don't install from the link you can just continue the SMS conversation via Allo. I've done that with my sister since she would not install another app (I assume, I didn't even ask but I know she didn't install since she's not in the Incognito section of my Allo app)

[G+_Robert Blank]

Paul Werner Yes. I've been fiddling around with it since last night and discovered that. I was simply responding to your comment about how you were saying your mom transitioned to Allo without any effort on your part. That's what I'm saying is the dangerous part is. It reinforces bad habits in my humble opinion.

[G+_Robert Blank]

One of the things I find most interesting about Allo is the SMS bridging that allows people to participate in a message thread without installing the app. But what kind of eludes me is why the SMS bridge doesn't facilitate message forwarding to the Google assistant. People communicating with the app can query the assistant by typing @Google before the query text, but that doesn't work for people communicating over SMS.

[G+_Paul Werner]

Robert Blank yeah I think it's because it needs to be an "Allo Conversation" before Assistant is involved. Probably by design

[G+_Robert Blank]

Paul Werner Maybe it is by design. But it's technologically feasible to export the interface of the assistant to SMS. I suppose they think they can incentivize the people who communicate through SMS to install the app since this superficial limitation exists.