Google released a new smart messaging application a couple of weeks ago -- Google Allo. At first glance, it has no much difference than other mature messaging applications on the market such as What's App, Line, WeChat. It has a concise and easy to use user interface and comes with stickers, doodles, and HUGE emojis & text. But do we really need a new messaging application which is similar to others in most aspects?
The answer is MAYBE. From its description, it claims it's a SMART messaging application. What brings its smartness? It's Google Assistant, a personal assistant which can help answer your daily requests and help make your custom plans. This is its selling point.
Although Google Assistant is still in a preview edition, some of its features can be tested out now. Basically you can chat with it about anything you want(But it's not guaranteed that you will get a satisfying answer).
- You can ask it to do math. For example, 1 + 2, 4*5 etc.
- You can check stock price by typing the symbols of stocks. For example, GOOG
- You can check today's weather and some other services around you.
It even knows what you asked before and tries to correlate these chat history. - You can check the maps to a destination.
- You can do a lot more with it...
All above gives an impression of other smart application such as Siri,Cortana. It endeavors to make you believe you are actually talking to a person instead of a cold machine. From this perspective, it's kind of like a personal assistant.
Its smartness is far from over yet. Perhaps the coolest thing about Google Assistant is that you can bring it into a group chat you are having with your friends so that it can offer some help when needed. For example, if you are discussing where to go for a lunch or dinner, you can ask it in the group chat for recommendations and then ask it to check Google Maps for the route and then ask it to add the plan to your calendar. Isn't this cool? It's helping you doing something real.
But there is still a long way to go for Google Assistant given the development speed of AI. It cannot understand some ambiguous words which human beings can understand given the chatting environment. It cannot help launch any application you have installed on your phone although it can help dial numbers and navigate webpages. It cannot help you post a Tweet or Facebook status yet.
However, most people think that it's just a toy people can play with when they feel bored, they are still not so convinced that it can be a true assistant for daily life. It will only get enough attention until it can offer more appealing experience for people's daily life requests. But it's on the right track.
