Late last night, Google announced Allo, their mobile message app for iOS and Android. I am not going to discuss the messaging component, but rather the preview of Google Assistant within Allo.
Google wrote:
In Google Allo you’ll also be introduced to a preview edition of the Google Assistant. With your Assistant in Allo, you can have a conversation with Google - ask it questions and let it help you get things done directly in your chats. You no longer need to leave a conversation with friends just to grab an address, share your favorite YouTube video, or pick a dinner spot. Just type @google to bring your Assistant into any group chat. And of course, you can also chat one-one-one with your Assistant in Allo.
I tried playing with it a bit but the feature is extremely limited based on my Google App account. It doesn't want to get too personal with me, as they do with Gmail accounts.
Here are some of the things many folks can do with Google Assistant in Allo:
- Make plans with friends. You can easily move from discussing dinner with friends to making plans for the night, right in your chat. Just add the Assistant to your group chat and ask for movie times, local restaurants and more. You can also research travel destinations, flights and hotels together with friends.
- Get answers. Get the latest info on everything from news, weather, traffic, sports, or your upcoming flights status. Ask the Assistant to send you daily updates on the information you care about.
- Have some fun. Ask your Assistant to share that funny YouTube video or play games with friends right in your group chat - for instance you can compete to guess a movie title based on a series of emojis.
Here is a GIF of it in action:
This only works for English speaking users but Google said it will work for more languages soon.
Former Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Zineb is now part of that team, so hopefully we are in good hands here for what this means to webmasters.
The Google Assistant is something that is going to be a huge topic for our industry in the very near future, so hold on to your hats.
Forum discussion at Google+ and WebmasterWorld.
