This is fucking dumb, and I am absolutely ok with this. The fact that we are able to do these 'dumb' and silly applications is a good sign. It shows that the field has advanced to the point where it is cheap enough to do these 'dumb' applications.<p>Not only that, but this 'dumb' application has immediate value(gets more people to use google's service and thus display ads to them). Because of the value these dumb applications have, they could help drive AI research and development of general purpose machine learning hardware.<p>Sometimes it's ok to do 'dumb' things.
The feature is technically interesting, but I don't care about Allo. There are enough silly messaging apps out there, evolving in their own silos. I miss the days of the XMPP protocol.
"Starting to roll out today" - does anyone versed in traditional PR have a say in this new trend in slow roll-outs?<p>I can see how it makes sense from an engineering point of view but I just installed Allo to try it out and it hasn't rolled out to me yet.<p>I'm rather unlikely to remember to try again in a few days/weeks etc.<p>This has happened multiple times in similar scenarios. I dug out my Gear VR to try the new Oculus browser. I didn't get it for 4 weeks (only a particular interest in WebVR kept me coming back to see if it was there).<p>Surely this is squandering good press and good will?
This actually looks pretty cool. Some initial thoughts:<p>- I have never used Allo or really even know what it is. I am downloading it now though.<p>- I hope it does more than just auto-create a Bitmoji character. I wonder how its going to distinguish itself from other avatar creating apps.
First I have to use a phone number to use an internet based chat system, now I should be excited about some comic figure? Allo - Are you out of your mind?