WhatsApp has long-held the top spot in the instant messaging field with the largest number of active users compared to any other app. Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Viber, BBM and others haven't matched WhatsApp's popularity on a global level. Now, Google has joined the race with its latest instant messaging app Allo.
Google Allo offers fresh and unique features that lack in most existing messaging apps. But the bigger question is whether this will help the company outbid or come anywhere close to the competition that WhatsApp has set at the moment.
We will be highlighting the features of both Allo and WhatsApp to see which app is better to use, and where do these apps miss out on.
Google Allo
Pros
- AI-based Google Assistant
- Funny stickers
- Emoticons
- Smart reply
- Incognito mode for end-to-end encrypted messaging
- Offline messaging with Google Assistant
- Integrated web search using Google Assistant
- Change text size
- Cross-platform messaging
- Group messaging
- Free to download
- No ads
- Picture recognition
- Doodle on photos before sharing
- Share GIFs
Cons
- No voice calling
- No Windows app
- Not many users on the network yet, invite necessary to chat
- No chat backup option
- No last seen or online status
- Cant share documents
- Supports only English for now
Pros
- World's largest network of users
- Voice calling
- Broadcast feature
- Star important messages
- Set personal status for profiles
- Shows last seen time on profiles and also when a user is online
- Read receipts
- Share docs, photos, contacts, audio, video
- Access app from Web
- Multiple platform support
- Free to download
- No ads
- End-to-end encryption by default
- Supports all major languages
- Sharing from third-party apps like Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud
Cons
- No AI-enabled personal assistant
- Lacks smart replies
- No photo editing tools
- Information sharing with Facebook (part of the latest update)
- No GIFs supported
Google Allo's battle has just started and it has a long way to go before it reaches where WhatsApp is currently at. The Facebook-owned messaging service has more than 1 billion users, while Allo has just started to attract users with its public debut.
