Second Opinion · #9 ·

Allo & Duo Review

Ian R Buck and Ryan Rampersad hold nothing back as they criticize almost everything about Allo and Duo. You shouldn't install the apps, but you should find out why from us.

0:00 / 30:4022.2 MB
Hosts: Ian R Buck , Ryan Rampersad

Fringe episode: tf399

Things in Common

  • Available on Android and iOS.
  • Uses your phone number, your phone contacts to populate its contacts list.
    • Can only have one device associated with your number at a time.
    • Problem: I have far more people’s email addresses than phone numbers.
  • Not available on tablets.

Allo

  • Instant messaging app.
  • Integrates the new Google Assistant.
    • Finally admitting that most people don’t want to talk to their phone to get stuff done most of the time.
    • Seems to work alright. I discovered that it can send you the day’s weather forecast every morning. My little sister played games with it for a while.
    • This is pretty much Allo’s only unique feature, so when the Assistant becomes available in more areas of the phone/in Google Home, Allo will lose a lot of its appeal.
  • Does not tell you if a contact has Allo yet. If they do not, it sends the message as an SMS with a link to install Allo.
  • When you switch devices, you lose all your messages from the old device.

    • Duo

  • One-to-one video calling.
  • How is the video and audio quality?
  • Interface is simple, clean, to the point.
  • Knock knock.

    • Attributions