By Jim Lundy
Never say never. Google IO16 is happening today and tomorrow in Mountain View, and Aragon Research will be there for some of the deep dive sessions.
That said, the news is already out about Allo and Duo, Google’s new Mobile Collaboration and Mobile Video products that were demonstrated today. While we will analyze all of the announcements, we wanted to share our initial thoughts about Allo now:
Allo -The Mobile Collaboration App That Chats With You
Allo has been rumored for months and today it was finally unveiled. Allo is smart and innovative. We call it Predictive because it can anticipate some of your needs and make suggestions. Allo is also unique because it allows you to chat with Google Search – via your conversations in the Chat – providing a conversational user experience.
Allo and Chat Bots Go Beyond Facebook
Allo encompasses all of what Facebook promised with Chat Bots last month – and then some. Allo features a Google search assistant (lower case), which to us seems pretty similar to Google Assistant, which powers Google Home, a new Consumer Appliance also announced today.
Google is Late, But Today It Leapfrogged Mobile Collaboration Offerings
While there will be countless conversations about Google being late to market, today, Google put a ton of pressure on other Mobile Collaboration providers. Let’s face it, Skype for Business has a lot of desktop footprints, but not as many mobile deployments. That said, Allo looks to be smarter and more flexible than many of the currently shipping Mobile Collaboration/Chat offerings. The main reason for this is that Google is leveraging its huge advantage in Search and bringing it to life in Allo.
There may be lots of hand wringing about how exactly Allo works compared to Slack and Slackbots. That said, Google is a Machine Learning Company. Allo has encryption as a starting point. Expect more on Allo going forward.