Allo Won’t End Google’s Struggle With Instant Messaging

Google has finally released it’s new instant messaging app, Allo. For years, Google has been struggling to create a messaging app to rival established messaging platforms, but these efforts have been met with failures. Google is yet to have a platform to rival the likes of Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.

With Allo, Google tries once again but it’s unsure if this app is going to be next craze. There’s a plethora of messaging apps already. Users on iOS tend to stick with iMessage since its the do-all app for SMS and Apple’s very own instant messaging platform (iMessage).

Although iMessage only works between iOS users, the smooth fallback to SMS when sending messages to non-Apple devices makes it great.

Allo is a cross-platform messaging app and Google has the chance to do it right.

Allo isn’t yet available in the Play Store but anyone could grab it from APK Mirror to see what it looks like. Allo looks promising and it might get iMessage users to consider it because of the great features and cross-platform compatibility.

Just like WhatsApp, all it needs is your phone number to register, a Google account isn’t even needed. It has a smart assistant that makes messaging fun.

However, the SMS fallback is implemeted in a way that’s not so great.

There is no seamless SMS integration like the one in Hangouts. When Allo is unable to send a message through Allo and the message is being sent as a text message,  this is sent through a proxy number (for some users). People had hoped for a do-all messaging app that fully integrates SMS.

Again, Google’s approach to instant messaging looks like a confused one. From Hangouts to Messenger, now Allo. This may not even be the last one.