Are you more of a “haha” or “LOL” kind of person? Don’t worry, Google’s machine learning inside the forthcoming Allo smart messaging app will figure it out as it gets to know you. Allo is a universal messaging app like WhatsApp and is probably gunning for the same market.

This app has standard messaging features including emojis and stickers and a new Whisper Shout feature that basically lets you make your text response smaller or larger. The interesting addition is Smart Reply as used in the Inbox mail app: it guesses at standard responses, eg if a friend asks for your ETA the app suggests “on my way” as a reply.

This sounds useful but an additional example given by Google made me feel slightly icky; if a friend sends a picture of a taco I'd rather my phone didn't suggest "yummy" before I'd even decided how I would like to respond. What if, over time, these algorithms push us towards particular responses that are designed to make us more sedate consumers or compliant citizens? I'll get my tinfoil hat then.

[ https://googleblog.blogspot.ie/2016/05/allo-duo-apps-messaging-video.htmlOpens in new window ]