‘Chat app Allo can be linked to Google account’

The chat app Google Allo works with verification via a phone number, but in the settings the app can still be linked to a Google account. That seems especially useful for Assistant, the Google bot in the chat application.

Although Allo can work with a Google account, the chat app cannot be used on multiple devices or via a web variant, Android Police writes. Allo only works on one device at a time and cannot synchronize chats with other devices, unlike Hangouts, for example, also from Google.

Users are identified only by phone number and not by Google account. Android Police emphasizes that this is a preview version of Allo and that things can still change before the release. The release was supposed to take place this summer, but exactly when that will happen is unknown.

Allo compresses images quite a bit, as it turns out in the preview version. Full resolution 4MB photos will revert to under 100KB with a resolution of around 1000×750 pixels. The same thing happens with videos. This ensures that photos and videos are sent faster than with Hangouts, for example, but that they look less good.

Google announced Allo along with Duo, which came out last week. Allo relies a lot on the use of artificial intelligence for all kinds of functions, such as looking up information without having to leave the app or, for example, ordering things via web services.