Google Allo For Chrome Finally Arrives, But Only For Android Users (engadget.com)

Google Allo, the chat app that arrived on the iPhone and Android devices last year, now has a web counterpart. Head of product for Allo and video chat app Duo, Amit Fulay, tweeted: "Allow for web is here! Try it on Chrome today. Get the latest Allo build on Android before giving it a spin." Engadget reports: To give it a go, you'll need to open the Allo app on your device and use that to scan a QR code you can generate at this link. Once you've scanned the code, Allo pulls up your chat history and mirrors all the conversations you have on your phone. Most of Allo's key features, including smart replies, emoji, stickers and most importantly the Google Assistant are all intact here. In fact, this is the first time you can really get the full Google Assistant experience through the web; it's been limited to phones and Google Home thus far.

Comments

Huh?

[bickerdyke]

Sounds complicated. I'll stick with Hangouts. Multi-device, web and app available, group chats and single chats, audio and video..... Google should buy that if they want a good messenger.

oh.. wait a sec..

Surprise! Seriously - huge surprise!

[bradley13]

I just wrote a comment grousing about yet-another-walled-off-chat-app. But then I did a brief search, and...

Surprise: Allo apparently uses the Signal protocol, which is an open standard. More, it's a standard that included end-to-end encryption. Unless Google deliberately and specifically broke compatibility, it should be possible for an Allo user to communicate with a Signal user, or anyone else with an app that supports the Signal protocol.

At the moment, I stick to SMS because that lets me send a message to someone without caring about what app they happen to have installed. Everyone can receive an SMS. Kind of pathetic, but there we are. But I use Signal to send those SMS messages, so if someone has a Signal-compatible app, it should automatically upgrade the communications channel.

Here's hoping: If this is the beginning of a movement back to open protocols, the world will be a better place...