promised it would release both lo Duo, its new chat video calling apps, this summer. Duo led more than a month ago, but lo is just barely squeaking under the wire before it’s technically autumn.
The lo site is now live, it gives you a rundown of the most important features of ’s new messaging app. The app itself is still rolling out worldwide, may or may not yet be available for you by the time you read this. As with Duo, lo is available for both Android iOS. Android users who just can’t wait can sideload the A from AMirror.
Taking another stab at messaging
has been criticized for its fragmented approach to messaging. Android phones often ship with Messenger, an SMS/MMS only client. Then there’s Hangouts, which is included as part of ’s work offerings. ’ve seen ve, then Buzz, + has backed off from its early ambitions as a “compete with Facebook” social network. launched a new group-centric communication app this summer: Spaces.
In some ways, lo seems like the most “-y” of the bunch. You attach lo to a phone number (as with Duo), but it has deep ties into services. It has all the expected features of messaging apps these days: stickers, quick access to images (, on Android, the ability to draw over them), the ability to adjust the font size to shout or whisper… but these days, is all about machine learning, lo is chock full of it.
Smart Reply learns how you respond to common messages lets you send text or emoji responses that suit the way you normally communicate. The more you use lo, the smarter its suggestions become.
That’s a nice touch, but it’s the Assistant that will make or break lo. The next evolution of Now, the Assistant is a conversational helper. st message @google (even in the middle of another conversation) to have search for that funny cat photo you took last week, or the latest score from your favorite team, or flight info, or the answer to a simple math problem… just about anything you could ask Now, you could probably ask the Assistant, more.
lo does not encrypt messages end-to-end by default, as ’s Assistant can’t use all that web-based machine learning stuff to help you if it doesn’t know what you’re talking about. If you want to have a private conversation, you can invoke Incognito Mode to enable end-to-end encryption control how long messages stick around before they expire.
’s latest messaging app is also mobile-only. There’s no or Mac client, no web client. It’s kind of an un- thing to do, really. Even atsApp, which is similarly tied to your phone number, is available on ndows, Mac, the web.
’ll have plenty more on lo when the app finishes rolling out over the coming hours.
