
Saying Hi to Allo and Duo: new apps for smart messaging and video calling - shayannafisi
https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2016/05/allo-duo-apps-messaging-video.html
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BinaryIdiot
So here's what I don't understand. Hangouts has been the main message app from
Google that supports text and video chat. One of the biggest complaints about
hangouts was not being able to use a phone number with it so you could
essentially replace SMS with another app that's closer to an iMessage
competitor.

Now we have two apps, Allo and Duo. Allo somehow addresses the phone number
piece...but is broken out into a separate app and is only available on Mobile
(so no web or desktop clients). Duo is basically the video portion of
Hangouts.

Am I missing something? I mean the assistant stuff in Allo is neat and all but
integration has been the key for a while to providing better usability and
this just not only ignores that but introduces two new apps that somewhat
sorta compete with Hangouts, its own product.

Why isn't this just one, single, awesome thing?

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vthallam
I guess, they didn't go with Hangouts because it was basically built as
extension of the web. May be they wanted to build a mobile focused messaging
app from ground up which can compete with apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. It
would have been if they integrated Allo and Duo into a single app though.

