Strictly speaking, Google Allo is an instant messaging application just like many others that have already been available on the Play Store for years. However, apart from providing its users with another method of communication, Allo also happens to store Google Assistant, the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) that can help you in numerous ways. Using it is as simple as typing “@google” in any Allo chat window in order to let this smart assistant know it’s time to get busy and answer some questions or do some other cool stuff it’s capable of. Speaking of which, the paragraphs below list the coolest things this AI can do.
Like any other assistant—human or not—worth its salt, Google Assistant is quite good at reminding you about things. Just type what you want to be reminded of and when and let the AI do the rest. Not surprisingly, the assistant can also modify your phone’s alarms if it has the necessary app permissions to do so. Just tell it when you want to wake up and your alarm will be set momentarily. Furthermore, if you happen to be sharing your location with Allo, you can also tell the AI you want to fly somewhere in order for it to present you with a list of available flights that it can book. In a similar vein, tell the assistant you’re hungry and it will instantly list nearby restaurants where you can book a table. If you tell it what kind of food you like, the AI will even remember your answers so that the same procedure goes more smoothly in the future.
If the weather seems sketchy, you can find out the latest forecast by simply asking your new AI buddy about it. In addition to that, Google Assistant can even help you to kill some time if you ask it to play a game. It will then offer you to choose between games called Emoji Movies and Emoji Riddles, both of which are already built into the app and can even be played against friends while you’re chatting to them. Speaking of chatting with friends, there’s a quick way to share a YouTube video with them in Allo without leaving the app. Just write something along the lines of “@google The Man Who Sold The World, Nirvana version” and Allo’s AI will instantly post the requested video in the chat window. Google Assistant is also quite capable of quickly pulling latest sports results for you which you can request by simply combining the name of the team or a sport you’re interested with along with the keyword “fixtures”. For extra convenience, you can also ask the AI to show you your emails. Last but not least, you might be surprised by the amount of humor programmed into Google Assistant. Even if you aren’t specifically looking to have them, some hilarious conversations will inevitably occur sooner or later, so you might as well embrace them if you’re ever bored.