Google’s AI offering – Allo[Preview version]

Happy Diwali to all.

 

On this auspicious occasion of Diwali, I am back to my blog writing, almost after 6 months.

 

This time I have a cool & interesting information for you that is Google’s artificial intelligence based messaging app ‘Allo’.

 

You must have observed that since last year all tech giants like Google, Microsoft & Apple have entered into this future computing called artificial intelligence, all their events include one of the software or hardware based on this technology.  All these software giants are working towards a new era of computing which will change our lives in coming days.

 

In simple language artificial intelligence [A I] is computer technique which learns the user preferences, language, vocabulary, based on these learning it improves the output & provide you the most accurate answers, it is also known as machine learning. One of the well-known examples of A I is a virtual assistance offered by tech giants for example Microsoft has Cortana, Apple has Siri & Google has Google Now.

 

Today I will pen down some initial observations for one of the Google’s latest offering Allo.

 

This is a Google’s smart solution over ”WhatsApp” & other popular messaging services but it has one additional feature which has raised many eyebrows that is artificial intelligence.

How to get Allo.

 

Google launched this app in the month of September, since then I heard a lot about this and was really curious but scared that whether it will support my old phone?  I was also worried on its accessibility with my android in-built screen-reader “Talkback”, but this Diwali vacation I decided to give a try.  I went to play Store & searched for “Allo”, very first result of this official app from Google, I opened the app details & was really happy that it supports my older Moto G 1st generation mobile. I quickly installed it & started my initial trial.

Initial setup screens.

 

Initial setup screens were really identical to any messaging app, it asked my name, phone & couple of optional questions like profile image, etc..  All these screens were really accessible, I completed the configuration without any challenges & before I go to home screen I got a popup saying that “Message from Google Assistance”

 

I was wondering that immediately after installation who is chatting with me over Allo, when I went to message list I saw this name “Google Assistance”. I opened this conversation & found that I got couple of messages from this computer based service, it is nothing but an A I driven assistance which can help you in your daily tasks.

 

There were some welcome greetings & along with that info regarding how to use Allo effectively.  You can chat using virtual keyboard & even send your message by tapping on “Microphone” icon. I was curious to ask some questions to this service,

 

Being a regular user of virtual assistance like “Google Now” I tapped on “Microphone” icon & asked my typical A I trial question that is “How is weather today?” within a second I got a reply that “It is really hot” and the screen showing local weather details for “Mumbai-Maharashtra”.  Intension behind this question is to check its understanding of GPS location, understanding Indian accent & lastly to know how it leverage the weather forecast service.  Information received from Allo was accurate as it detected my home city “Mumbai” & gave me the correct whether forecast; I confirmed this info through my regular buddy Google Now.

What we can do using Allo – “Google assistance”.

 

Likewise in the above examples we can ask many questions regarding your calendar, meetings, travel details, traffic situation,  your work place & so on, being a crazy foodie I asked Allo at nearest food options & got an instant reply with list of nearest restaurants based on my GPS along with their user ratings & driving directions.

 

User interface of Allo is really simple as expected from Google, few standard controls for chat history, text box for input message & microphone icon for voice based search, one unusual tab here in Allo that is “Suggestions”, this tab includes the A I suggestions from Google.

 

A I integrated in Allo will learn your question style, language, preferences & it will improve its suggestions over the period. These suggestions are always connected to your previous question or answer, for e.g. I asked for “Latest news”, instantly I got all top news as an answer from “Google Assistance”, after this answer my suggestions tab was showing me questions like “Send me news daily”, “Send me news weekly”, I can use one of the suggestions & continue the chat with Assistance. This computer based conversation is so interactive that it feels like human, this is the beauty of A I.  You can ask many other queries to “Google Assistance” & this list is going to improve as it is only a month old & currently in its preview version.

Play game with Google assistance.

 

During one of my conversations with assistance I got few suggestions like “Play game”, “Play song”, play song is very common option for me as I always ask my Google now this question, was really curious on this “Play game” question so I tapped on it & it went to assistance, quickly got list of game types like “History”, “Geography”, “Math’s” & “Bollywood”, hey! What a customized result for Indians

 

I quickly tapped on “Bollywood” & it asked me some more questions like “difficulty type” & “Question numbers”, after answering those initial questions one window popped over the Allo screen, this was nothing but a “Game” window which had my first question with 4 options. 

 

Reading this questions with options was a time consuming task with “talkback” but was highly accessible, I read the question & tapped on my desired answer, I think I was little late in answering this as I got one audio feedback for time out signal, there was no text info on screen regarding this, after this it quickly displayed my next question with options, I answered all these questions & got my final result on a text based window.

 

Wow! What a feeling, I just played a game with Google assistance that too using a screen-reader, it was a really an amazing experience.  This was one of the games which I played, like this you can play many games with assistance

Chatting with your buddies using A I suggestions.

 

As stated earlier, Allo is a messaging app like “WhatsApp”, “Snap chat”, Hike”, etc.  which connects to your buddies over I M chat. One cool feature in Allo is when you send an Allo message to your friend, if he/she is not having Allo then he/she will get an SMS with your message text along with a link to download/install Allo.

 

A couple of days I am chatting with my friend using Allo, I can confirm that it is learning my typing style & also started giving me appropriate suggestions, for e.g. I got a message from my friend “I will call you in sometime”, for this message in suggestion list I had 2 lines “Ok sure” & “Sure no problem”, you won’t believe I always use these lines while talking to my friends, here Google’s A I has  learned this practice of mine & suggested me these replies, most of the visually challenged smart phone users dislike typing on virtual keyboards hence these suggestions may eliminate some typing efforts & frustrations for them.  I am sure that as much as I will use Allo for messaging it will learn my style & will improve its suggestions for better & quicker interactions.

Privacy concern

 

In today’s era of internet based personal services we have this big concern of Privacy, I am neither a billionaire nor a celebrity hence not that worried about my private life & info as no one will be interested in a poor guy like me. If you are concerned about your private chats & details then I recommend you to go through the privacy notice from Google before using this cool app Allo.

Conclusion.

 

As said earlier, this is not a detailed review but an initial observations I made about this app while using it with screen reader program, A I is going to enter our lives in coming days & Allo is one of the recent offerings, I understand that Allo is not going to replace our primary IM buddies like “WhatsApp”, “Hike” but defiantly going to give a tuff competition to them with its uniqueness of A I engine in the messaging app.  I found this app is completely accessible with a screen reader “Talkback”.  I would recommend this app to blind smart phone users for enhancing their chat experience and to use its features.