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There's a reason Google has become one of the most important companies on the internet: its core products like Gmail and search are great—when was the last time you looked something up with anything other than Google? And then there's Android, which under Google's stewardship has become the largest computing platform on Earth with devices ranging in price from dirt cheap to obscenely expensive. But Google doesn't always make the right call. In fact, it has royally screwed up on numerous occasions. Here are five of the worst Google missteps, as chosen by the AP staff in a spirited Slack debate.
Google got rid of its obnoxious App Preview Messages
You probably disabled it right away and forgot about it
There may be effective ways to convince people to use an app, but it seems that Google's App Preview Messages were not one of them. The program, which notified Android users when someone is trying to communicate with an app they haven't installed, is officially deprecated, having never left its early access stage in the 4 years it has existed.
Allo was announced back in 2016. Unlike its popular video counterpart Duo, the app never really took off — so it was no surprise when Google formally announced the app's days were numbered in December. According to a banner on the Allo website, the service's time has come: it's shutting down tomorrow, March 12.
Google's fling with Allo is officially coming to an end, and as we've seen with many other products in the past, that usually means it's time to grab your data and go. A new update to the Allo app is rolling out today that will make this much easier. Using a simple tool, you'll be able to export your chat logs and any media for safe keeping before Allo closes its doors for good at the end of March 2019.
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- We're approaching the end of Allo history, as a recent report indicates that Google is planning to announce its death. As we wait for that last word to fall, it's time to ponder and reflect upon Google's short-lived and misguided messaging platform one last time, and we've updated our historical editorial to include this latest (and possibly last) development.
Back in April, it was revealed that development for Allo was temporarily suspended while Google redoubled its efforts at spreading the gospel of RCS. At the time, the company reassured consumers that it was still committed to supporting Allo, but the recent news of it's expected shutdown, paired with a total absence of updates for the last ten months, casts those earlier statements into severe doubt.
Hot on the heels of a report that Allo may be shutting down soon, the aforementioned service has stopped working for many. On top of that, Duo and Messages for web are currently non-functional as well, pointing to an outage somewhere upstream.
According to a report from 9to5Google, Allo's days may be numbered. Details are admittedly sparse, but a source communicating with 9to5Google's Stephen Hall said that Google is (or was) expected to announce a shutdown of the messaging app "soon," though an additional delay could be imposed in the wake of the related news surrounding the expected "Hangouts classic" shutdown/migration.
It's a meme at this point: Every two years, Google announces yet another new messaging platform that will finally give Android its iMessage competitor. Those of you hoping Allo might break this cycle will be disappointed today, as The Verge has revealed that Google is pausing development for Allo and switching focus to the existing Android Messages app, paired with an investment in branding RCS messaging into something called "Chat."
Allo is perhaps one of Google's most controversial products at the moment. It abandoned most of what made Hangouts great, in favor of connecting users by phone numbers rather than email addresses. The app has been slowly regaining some of Hangouts' functionality since release, including a web client. There's just one problem - the web app requires your phone to be turned on with a network connection.
There's a new version of Android Messages rolling out to our phones. So far, we haven't seen any significant changes to the UI, but huge things are happening under the surface. A teardown reveals Google is getting ready to launch a web interface that would allow users to pair their phones with a computer for all of their texting needs. Google may also be planning to offer its own enhanced chat features to work with RCS messaging. And finally, it looks like we'll be able to buy things from companies right from within Android Messages. Grab the APK at the bottom of the post if you'd like to get your hands on it before everybody else.
Allo's small userbase has become somewhat of a joke in the Android community, but the fact of the matter is that there are actually people who use Google's latest messaging service. Crazy, right? If you do use Allo, you might have noticed that your messages have been stuck on "Sending..." with none of them actually being sent. Don't worry; you're not alone. Allo seems to be down for everyone right now.
Allo updates are starting to roll out, but as the trend has been going, there's not much to see in the main interface for this update. However, tearing down the APK has turned up signs of good things to come. Support for using Google accounts to find contacts and start conversations is going to be pretty robust as hints suggest we'll be able to sign in multiple accounts. There's also a new camera effect listed, a little activity around the scene generation feature, and a hint that the behavior of bots may by changing.
Amit Fulay served as a Product Manager at Google since 2010, most recently as Head of Product for Real-Time Communications. In other words, he was the head of Allo, Duo, WebRTC, and other projects within the company. Fulay announced on Twitter today that he has left Google, and now works at Facebook.
The Pixel 2 XL has suffered from several issues since its launch, both hardware and software-related, just like pretty much any other consumer product of its kind. The latest bug to come to light is a curious one that affects the sound output level of a voice clip sent via a messaging app. According to a number of users on this Pixel User Community thread, this issue is limiting the volume level when recording voice messages on the Pixel 2 XL.
A new version of Allo is rolling out just in time for the holidays. If you're thinking about singing Christmas carols or wishing somebody a happy new year, things are going to get a little more interesting thanks to the latest update. Your audio messages will now be automatically transcribed to text, so people can decide when to listen and have some idea of what they're going to be hearing. There's also a clue that may suggest threaded conversations will be supported. We're still poking around for other changes, but let us know in the comments if you stumble across anything else.
A new version of Allo is making the rounds, and again with an evening release on a Friday. So far, no new features have been uncovered in this update, but we're still poking around for something to reveal itself. In the meantime, there's plenty of material to examine under the microscope of a teardown. We can see that contacting people through their Google account may be coming soon. Allo's upcoming camera effects are evolving as two old ones may have been removed, a new one turns up, and they're all getting new icons. And that's not all.
Google began rolling out version 23 of Allo yesterday. No feature changes have jumped out at us yet, but there's plenty of material for a teardown. There are more details about the upcoming camera effects for selfies and selfie clips, a new type of attachment, custom support for contact cards shared between people, and more.
Google Allo is loaded with quirky and unusual features, many of which fall outside of the norm for traditional instant messengers. While a lot of people write off things like selfie stickers as distractions, they serve to give users new ways to make their chat experience into whatever they want it to be. Based on a video and screenshots we've obtained from a person testing preview features in Allo, it looks like the app will soon introduce a feature called 'Activities' with the ability to launch miniature shared apps that everybody can interact with.
Releasing an app update just before the start of the weekend is always a bit risky, but here we have an update to Allo v22 that shows that's just how those developers play the game. On the other hand, this looks like a pretty calm update; the only thing jumping out so far is a streamlined UI for setting up solo and group chats. A teardown also brings up some clues about enhancements coming in the future, including transcriptions for audio messages and new camera effects.
These days, almost every service with any kind of social element includes a place for a profile picture. Most apps will also give users an opportunity to crop the image down before locking it in, that way you don't have to break out a photo editor just to center yourself and cut out other people from the shot. Most people probably never noticed it, but this little convenience feature wasn't available in Allo, at least not until now.