Google has announced a new smart messaging app, Allo. The app is based on your phone number, and it will continue to learn from you over time, making it smarter each day. In addition to this, you can add more emotion to your messages, in ways that you couldn't before. You will be able to "whisper" or "shout" your message, and the font size will change depending on which you select. This is accomplished by pressing the send button and dragging up or down to change the level of emotion.
You'll also be able to draw on your photos before you send them with the Ink feature, add stickers and emoji and much more. Taking a page out of its success with Inbox, Allo will also have Smart Reply built right in. You can use emoji in the Smart Reply, and it will also work when people send you pictures. For example, if you receive a picture of a dog, the replies that will pop up are related to the dog.
Assistant Integration
Google will be building its new Assistant feature right into Allo as well. For example, if you are talking with a friend about Italian food, you get a suggestion that you can tap to display to everyone in the message thread to help decide on a restaurant. Once you all agree on a place, Google Assistant will help you book a table through OpenTable right from within the messaging thread. Being conversational, all of the members are sending messages to the Google Assistant like they are talking with another human.
You'll be able to call on the Assistant at any time during a conversation by simply typing "@google" and then your query. For example, you can type "@google funny cat pics" and then get responses right in the chat. These chats can take place in group form, or one-on-one with just the Assistant.
Bored and want to play a game? Well, Assistant can help you with that as well. There is an emoji game that gives you various emoji and you have to pick what they translate into. Developers will be able to create and submit games that the Assistant can play with others.
Incognito Mode
Understanding that you don't always want everything to be seen by everyone, Allo will also offer an Incognito mode like it does in Chrome. This provides end-to-end encryption, time-deleted messages and the ability to hide the sender and receiver details. As soon as you close the Incognito mode, everything that you did will disappear, like it never happened.
Allo will be available on both iOS and Android later this summer.
More: Google I/O 2016 coverage
