After a not so successful launch of Hangouts as a messaging platform in 2013, Google launched Allo, a mobile-only messaging app in the last quarter of 2016. Google tried to stand out with its widely popular competitors by incorporating Google Assistant into Allo in the form of a conversational chat bot.
With Assistant, users have access to all the knowledge of the internet that Allo uses to provide you and your friends with context based information, based on your chat history.
While Assistant only supported English in the beginning, Google added German, Hindi, Japanese, and Portuguese. The newest update has today revealed that the Google Assistant in Allo now also supports French and Spanish. It was first spotted by Android Police but it seems users have now started seeing smart replies in those languages and they can ask the Assistant bot to use them.
The Assistant’s usage of these two languages is still a bit rougher than its more official ones, indicating that they are still being worked upon. The head of conversational search at Google Behsad Behzadi stated that Spanish will be completely functional by the end of the year and French is also on the same track, but it may take longer to fully implement.
The addition of these two languages was only a rumour, with some users’ Assistant offering to set Spanish or French as the default language on the Allo app. But, confirmation came with Google’s head of product for Allo tweeting that Spanish was being added to the app and Google’s Canadian blog stating the same about French.
Also rolling out Assistant in #GoogleAllo in Spanish
— Amit Fulay (@amitfulay) May 9, 2017
As Google Assistant is the primary way by which Allo is differentiating itself from other chat and messaging apps, the inclusion of new languages into Google’s repertoire only increases its popularity and reach a wider populace. This also helps Google increase its market share in the messaging apps industry.
Additionally, a few weeks ago, Google has added basic chat functions to Allo, including encrypted incognito mode in group chats, link previews, and the ability to backup and restore your messages.All of these updates hopefully ensure that Allo is a more successful chat app and has better success attracting a bigger customer base than Hangouts initially did.
