The past few weeks haven’t exactly gone as planned for Google. The tech giant was hoping to make ripples across the instant messaging sphere with Allo, but it was hit hard with disappointment as the chat app attracted a rather underwhelming response at launch. Mobile users struggled to find a good enough reason to ditch their current chat apps for Google Allo, with many of them calling it an unworthy rival to the existing options. It did manage to garner positive reviews from some tech blogs like www.techomag.com, which went as far as calling its features “revolutionary”. However, most review sites struggled to look beyond its blatant weaknesses and described it as unexceptional at best.
Google clearly hadn’t done its homework
Okay, let’s not take anything away from Google Allo. The app sure is a feature galore, with the arsenal consisting of goodies like Google Assistant, Smart Reply, Doodling, Picture Recognition, Voice Sensor, Incognito Mode, Emoji, and Stickers. Their potential to deliver a unique and gratifying messaging app is beyond doubt.
Google was apparently so engrossed in rolling out a distinctive chat app that it failed to carry out a proper market research and actually learn what mobile users really want. As a result, it ended up omitting some of the most coveted features from the finished product, which include:
- SMS Support
- Desktop Client
- Multi-Device Sync
- Greater Regard for Privacy
Mobile users who did give Google Allo a shot were left disappointed by the omission of what they considered essential features of a messaging app. In their opinion, the app was either released prematurely, or Google simply doesn’t understand what people want. This sure isn’t the first time the tech giant has been accused of its disconnect with the market.
Quite possible to recover from an initial stumble
A number of influential industry commentators have already begun to write Google Allo off, calling it an even bigger disappointment than Hangouts. They feel that the latest app simply doesn’t have what it takes to pique interest and would, therefore, continue to struggle to take off in the month to come unless a drastic overhaul is carried out.
The optimists, however, are cutting Google some slack by appreciating the company’s commitment to offering a unique experience instead of simply trying to replicate the success formula of rival messaging apps. The app may not have gotten off to a great start due to the omission of a few essential features, but they are convinced that once it makes amends by adding those features to its arsenal, it would skyrocket to fame within no time. Considering it’s a Google app that we are talking about, the latter scenario certainly seems more probable.
Considering how excited the tech giant was about Allo, it’s probably safe to assume that it’s not dragging its feet as it did in the case of Android and has already declared a state of emergency.
