There are a plethora of messaging apps available to download for every phone and computer on the planet. Many have certain features that draw consumers to use them over others and most are a far cry from the old days of Microsoft IM (Instant Messenger).
Google has released the preview edition of Allo on Google play which comes preloaded with Google Assistant. We downloaded it onto a Oneplus 3 and tried it out. First impressions were quite good to be honest. IT is easy to use, straightforward and seems to work without fault. That being said it does have a few creepy undertones, for example:
So, what can Assistant do for you? Well, quite a lot actually.:
- Show me photos of…
- What is the weather doing in…
- Set reminders.
- Search through Gmail for reservations etc.
- Do Math if you are lacking on that front.
- Be your personal DJ.
- Bring up the current, most recent news .
- Tell you directions, distance to location etc.
- Play a number of different games within the app.
- Search out poems when prompted for a welcome break from the grind.
- Need a pub or restaurant close to where you are staying? Assistant can look for you.
- Find out whats showing at the local cinema
- Can tell you info from your emails and calendar.
The app does all these tasks for you at a price though, it intelligently works out what you need to know from your previous chat. This means it reads and stores all of your chats, all of them!
Google CEO Sundar Pichai was quoted as saying:
“We think of this assistant as an ambient experience that extends across devices; It’ll be on their phones, the devices they wear, in their cars, and in their homes.”
Google Assistant is also available with Google Home
Bear in mind this is probably not the polished article as it is the preview edition, it will probably change a little for final release. Things are about to change, AI is coming and it is not going to go away anytime soon, welcome to your future!
Sources:
Gizmodo.com
Google.com