The Record of Dead AI Products
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Filed under Consumer · 2019

Google Allo

2016 - 2019, 3 years old

A messaging app built around Smart Reply suggestions and the first consumer outing of Google Assistant.

Allo launched on September 21, 2016 as Google's answer to WhatsApp and iMessage, and was the first app to ship Google Assistant. Its headline AI feature was Smart Reply, which proposed canned responses based on the conversation and on photos sent in the chat. The product never escaped Google's older messaging properties, and a phone-number-only signup with no SMS fallback kept growth flat. In April 2018 Google paused investment and reassigned the team to RCS in Android Messages. Allo stopped working on March 12, 2019, with Smart Reply and Assistant integration folded into Messages.

Founded
2016-09
Shut down
2019-03-12
Funding raised
Undisclosed
Years alive
3
Founders
Google

Sources

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