
Google Allo is now available on the web - PleaseHelpMe
https://allo.google.com/web
======
lucideer
> _Almost there! Just visit g.co /alloforweb in your Chrome browser._

> _Don 't have Chrome? Get it_

Ah yes, we're back in 2002 again.

~~~
PleaseHelpMe
Support for other browsers are coming. I am neither working on this nor a
Google engineer, but I saw a tweet from relavent developers working on this.

~~~
lucideer
In 2002, it was much more difficult to support multiple browsers, and not
doing so was still (eventually) frowned upon.

In 2017, with the combination of pretty close parity between VM's technology
support (even Chakra) and the range of powerful preprocessors, build tools and
shims, if you're not supporting multiple major user agents you're an
objectively bad frontend developer. This isn't about the cost benefit of
committing time to smaller market shares because the cost is negligible. The
only explanation can be incompetence.

... or that you're the maker of said browser and stand to gain from actively
deprioritising your competitors. I don't know that this is policy at Google,
but it's either one or the other.

~~~
hdhzy
You're right. I've built pretty complex offline first web applications (using
Indexeddb, Service Workers etc) initially on Chrome but when I tested them on
Firefox and Edge there was just one minor bug on Edge (Indexeddb expected
undefined but was given null in one case, Chrome and Firefox did not
complain). So it definitely is possible to build sites that work on all
browsers.

Maybe "use Chrome" means "not tested on Firefox and Edge?"

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unicornporn
[https://i.imgur.com/12g0j6f.png](https://i.imgur.com/12g0j6f.png)

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philtar
Google is a complete joke when it comes to understanding people.

Allo Duo Google Chat Google Meet

Four. Four different chatting applications. Whatsapp has one. Facebook has
one. Apple has one. WeChat has one. Google has four.

~~~
newscracker
I'm sure Facebook has two - WhatsApp and FB Messenger - and is struggling to
figure out (and working on) how to keep just one and eliminate the other.

~~~
pitaj
Facebook has many apps: WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and maybe
more

~~~
newscracker
I was referring to primarily text/emoji based, person-to-person apps/platforms
(similar to Allo). That's why I listed only WhatsApp and FB Messenger and
intentionally ignored the other ones.

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newscracker
It's me, not you, Allo. I loathe communication apps that rely only on phone
numbers and won't work without access to one's contacts/address book. My phone
number is highly important to me from a privacy angle and I don't give it away
willy-nilly. I'd feel a little more comfortable when this works with email
addresses alone, which I have many of and use different ones for different
purposes.

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nikolay
I'm hugely disappointed! And where's Hangouts Chat? I think Google tries to
implement some sort of diversity in their product line as well!

~~~
ziggzagg
2011: Google tries to compete with Facebook: Google+ 2016: Google tries to
compete with Telegram, Whatsapp and aton of other messenger: Allo

~~~
nikolay
I think Google is totally lost, because since when centralized communication
is a bad thing? They didn't get why Facebook released Messenger as a separate
app or why they bought WhatsApp.

~~~
ziggzagg
This is not about technology, this is about user war. Back in 2011, Google got
seriously scared about Facebook growth. So they naively came up with this
Google+ idea, which of course died and joined the long list of Google's
embarrassing tries in the social networking space.

It is sad to see the negative effects of Facebook, on one side on users and
stealing their privacy and data, and on the other side on giants like Google,
who used to create cool projects like Gmail back when the internet was a cool
breath.

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marssaxman
The screaming-monster image and the context-free exhortation to switch to
Chrome (no, thanks!) do very little to inform me about what Allo is or why I
would want to use it. This does not strike me as a particularly good design.

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trextrex
I wonder if this means Hangouts is going to be deprecated soon.

~~~
sidcool
I doubt it. Hangouts is a widely used tool in the Enterprise.

~~~
hdhzy
Not to mention no one is using Allo (based on anecdotes).

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ergo14
I installed it today out of curiosity - 15 contacts had it installed, and
google play reports over 10 milion downloads - so someone must be using it.

That being said - i was perfectly fine with hangouts and hate fragmentation.

~~~
cpncrunch
How many of those are active users though? According to this story from Jan,
there are very few new downloads:

[http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/01/31/google-allo-drops-
of...](http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/01/31/google-allo-drops-off-the-
top-500-apps-chart-on-google-play/)

And some of those installs may be due to the spammy nagware scheme google uses
to force people to install it so they can see messages:

[https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/allo/QaFAiTvTEr...](https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/allo/QaFAiTvTErk/rQfo0TLZFgAJ)

~~~
ergo14
I honestly have no idea, I installed it out of curiosity to see the web
interface built in polymer. Ideally I'd just see google stick to hangouts.

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gumboshoes
Did anyone else notice that QR code changes on reload? Is that simply for
analytics? Or is there another purpose?

~~~
mauriciob
Security. It's token based.

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fuzzygroup
So no support for anything other than Chrome and no support for devices other
than Android? Really?

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pasbesoin
At one point, Google, you had a preferred messaging position on my devices.

For me, from my perspective, you pissed it away.

"Bye-bye"

