Allo on the web now has a low-battery alert for your phone so that if you’re using Allo on the desktop to chat with friends and family, but aren’t necessarily keeping a watchful eye on your smartphone’s battery life, as soon as it gets to a certain point you can still be on the up and up to make sure that you plug your device in before losing all of the battery power and the phone ends up dying on you instead.
While you might not think this matters, if you use Allo on the web often enough then you likely already know that it needs your phone to be on for the service to work, as it links to the Allo app on your device, hence why Google is ensuring that users who do chat through Allo on the web never have to worry about losing that connection because it will remind them to give their phone’s some power. The alert, which pops up just above the “start a chat” button and just below your profile icon that swings out the hamburger menu when clicked, will be a little yellow box that tells you to connect your phone to a charger if you wish to continue chatting without any interruptions, so if you see this message then you will definitely want to heed its advice and plug your phone in.
This isn’t really a huge new change for the service but it is a thoughtful one that while minor, still helps improve the experience for users all the same because it will make sure that you’re able to continue using it, and in the end that’s what it’s all about for Google, ensuring that users are continuing to interact with its services and products. The alert doesn’t notify you of what your battery level will need to be at before the message pops up again so it’s entirely possible that you may never see it. It’s also not mentioned or indicated whether or not users will need the most recent version of the Allo app on their phone for this to show up, or if Google is just flipping the switch here for a server-side change. In either case, if you use Allo on the web, keep an eye out for this alert the next time you forget to plug your phone in.