Tag: Messaging Apps

WhatsApp has announced that effective in 2017, support for several legacy mobile OS versions has been or will be eliminated.  For Android, Eclair (version 2.1) and Froyo (version 2.2) are on the list.  What this means is if you are running a device with Android 2.1 or 2.2 (which begs the question, why?) you will no longer get support from WhatsApp for any issues.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that the app on your phone will quit working, just that future updates may not be available (highly likely).

Android wasn’t the only OS impacted.  Support for BlackBerry OS and Blackberry 10 was dropped as well as Nokia Symbian S60 and Windows Phone 7.  Here is the complete list:

• BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10
• Nokia S40
• Nokia Symbian S60
• Android 2.1 and Android 2.2
• Windows Phone 7
• iPhone 3GS/iOS 6

As you can see, all of these are rather old mobile OS builds.

One of the more anticipated movies of the year, Rouge One: A Star Wars Story, is hitting theaters this Friday and to get your ready for the event, Google has added a set of Rouge One stickers to Google Allo.  Now when you use the new messaging app, you can add the Rouge One stickers to your sticker options and send them to friends in your messages.  To add them, just open up Allo and when you are in a message, tap the + in the text field.  Now tap the Sticker add-on button, the one in the far right of the bar, and you will see the option to download and add the Rouge One stickers to your account.

In all, there are 23 stickers in the pack, which is free.

After weeks of anticipation and waiting, Google finally pulled the trigger and launched Google Allo, their new messaging app.  The company had indicated it would be available this summer and as expected, it launched today (late last night technically) on the last day of summer.  Promise kept!

The new app that is “a new smart messaging app for Android and iOS that helps you say more and do more right in your chats. Google Allo can help you make plans, find information, and express yourself more easily in chat. And the more you use it, the more it improves over time.”

Leveraging phone numbers of contacts in your contacts list, you can SMS or, if they are using Allo, rich message them with larger text, inked photos and stickers.  If you message someone and they are not using Allo (on SMS), they will get a small prompt to download the app if they are on Android but they don’t necessarily have to do so.  Allo can be just a SMS app if you so choose.

The real killer feature in Google Allo however is Google Assistant that is built into it.

The stage is set for the world to finally see Google’s new messaging app, Google Allo, this week.  Wednesday in fact if you take in consideration the leak from Evan Blass over the weekend and Google’s own words.  On Saturday, Evan Blass tweeted that we would likely see the new messaging app this week.

Hello, Allo (launches this week).

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) September 18, 2016

Given Blass’ outstanding recording when it comes to such things, it is hardly for me to question that this will happen even if it is a leak-meets-rumor.  But for me, my money is on Wednesday of this week.  Why?  Google’s own words.