It took a year, but Google Allo finally works on a desktop

Google Allo, Google's latest attempt to stay relevant in the instant messaging market, is finally going to work on something other than a single smartphone. Google is launching a web interface for the struggling instant messaging service.

Google Allo launched in September 2016, and it was missing so many basic messaging features it was dead on arrival. It only worked on phones, leaving tablets, laptops, and desktops out in the cold. It couldn't be used on multiple devices at once. It didn't work with SMS messages, so you couldn't talk to your friends that weren't on Allo. It didn't even pull information from your Google account, needing a name and picture at registration. Instead of working to quickly fix these gaps in core functionality, the Allo team burned through their first year (and all their launch hype) launching superfluous features like additional stickers and animated gif support.

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