Google is having a go at winning some traffic with a chat app for Android and iOS. In a crowded sector can it break in, or this another me-too app that just has to be added to the portfolio?

It's also connecting a preview of Google Assistant, which will allow some additional research on-the-fly. The idea behind it being that you can check things such as movie times, restaurants, etc., within the chat window.

[googleblog.blogspot.com...]

Added: Privacy is likely to be a problem for some.

Like most machine learning systems, the smart replies work better with more data. As the Allo team tested those replies, they decided the performance boost from permanently stored messages was worth giving up privacy benefits of transient storage. Google backs off on previously announced Allo privacy feature [theverge.com]

[edited by: engine at 3:44 pm (utc) on Sep 21, 2016]