29 ms·

Neural Network-Generated Illustrations in Allo

153 points by ashin 9y ago

Dimi9909 9y ago
that's cool. Google always WOW people.
levesque 9y ago
The feature is technically interesting, but I don't care about Allo. There are enough silly messaging apps out there, evolving in their own silos. I miss the days of the XMPP protocol.
- spiderfarmer 9y ago
  I have always trouble remembering where a message came in. I have SMS / iMessage, Messenger, Whatsapp, 5 e-mail accounts and a Forum Inbox to worry about. And since you can't exactly flag messages as 'to do' I have to answer immediately or risk forgetting to reply. I hate that.
  - mholmes680 9y ago
    Ditto this, on android. I have Messages, which i think is Google's... and i only downloaded it because the apps from Samsung, Verizon, and Facebook went to war in January (on my phone at least) and somehow I ended up getting texts in either the samsung app or verizon but never both, but group conversations in facebook messenger, but only the verizon app would actually allow picture messages to be viewable if i sent them to my mother. I also have Allo, because a (<-- not plural) coworker and I were curious about it. I think it solved that they didn't have facebook but did have apple, or maybe not i don't know. I also downloaded Duo and haven't opened it since, and I had hangouts, but i'm so very angry that Google screwed that up yet again. I have zero confidence in Google products fulfilling any of my needs completely ever again, and I really used to be the Google-champion of my friends... sigh.
    - spiderfarmer 9y ago
      Yeah, Google's been messing up messaging ever since Google Wave.
  - mifeng 9y ago
    Me too. On my Pixel, messages will randomly appear either in: * Allo * Hangouts * Messenger (Android) * Messenger (Facebook) * WhatsApp It's like SMS-Roulette.
    - visarga 9y ago
      A possible solution would be to run all third party apps in containers and use computer vision (deep learning) to collect messages and notifications from their screens into a single place, if they don't want to cooperate officially. I don't know the legal implications though. Another app that should run into a container and be post-processed by computer vision is the web browser. We need to contain the browser itself (more privacy) and keep the pesky ads out of our eyes in a way that is impossible to hack by clever scripting or ad-block detection. On the next round, ad publishers would have to create adversarial ads that fool the classifier which would be a whole lot more difficult.
      - wcummings 9y ago
        I just tell everyone to email me. I have one email address. Everyone uses email. Problem solved.
- dheera 9y ago
  Me too. I do not know any of my friends who are using Allo. Why didn't Google roll out this feature within Hangouts?
  - kmicklas 9y ago
    Google has 12354697024785902789027345238907423 messaging apps and no one has any idea why.
  - pgodzin 9y ago
    Hangouts is now meant to be intended for enterprise use while Allo is the consumer-focused messaging app
    - deong 9y ago
      A consumer-focused messaging app. There's also Duo for video calls and "Messenger" for SMS (on Android). There's also the older thing called "Messenger" that's still running on all those devices that no one ever updated. On the desktop/browser, I guess there isn't a consumer-focused messaging app anymore. Unless I'm missing something obvious, Google apparently ceded that ground to others. I'm beginning to realize why Allo is as goofy as it is. It's not actually a messaging app. It's a machine learning playground app with a feature to send stuff to other people occasionally. Allo makes more sense as a concept if you look at it that way, though as a product, that's a bonkers idea that basically no one needs. Hence the non-existent user base.
      - technofiend 9y ago
        App fatigue is real... when Captain Kirk flipped open his communicator he didn't select which app to use when requesting a transport. That Google has several apps which compete and conflict with each other is absurd. The fact they keep migrating functionality in and out of them is moreso. Just pick a winner and be done with it. There's not really a competitive advantage to splitting your ecosystem into 5 different communication apps, google, there's really not.
- btczeus 9y ago
  XMPP is alive: Try Conversations for Android
pwaivers 9y ago
This actually looks pretty cool. Some initial thoughts: - I have never used Allo or really even know what it is. I am downloading it now though. - I hope it does more than just auto-create a Bitmoji character. I wonder how its going to distinguish itself from other avatar creating apps.
0x006A 9y ago
First I have to use a phone number to use an internet based chat system, now I should be excited about some comic figure? Allo - Are you out of your mind?
rawnlq 9y ago
Is anyone working on this for 3d avatars (like in game character creation/customization except automatic)?
- thesash 9y ago
  Facebook is doing some pretty interesting work in this area https://www.facebook.com/spaces https://www.facebook.com/spaces
- zo7 9y ago
  Loom.ai does just that: https://www.loomai.com/ https://www.loomai.com/ (disclaimer: I work here) We're still pretty early stage, but hope to open up our developer API/SDK soon!
agjacobson 9y ago
This is childish. Apple's version of this works better, in real time, in FaceTime, because it's above a threshold of kiddiness.
- vernie 9y ago
  What's Apple's version of this?
rch 9y ago
I'd try the H.R. Giger version.
gene-h 9y ago
This is fucking dumb, and I am absolutely ok with this. The fact that we are able to do these 'dumb' and silly applications is a good sign. It shows that the field has advanced to the point where it is cheap enough to do these 'dumb' applications. Not only that, but this 'dumb' application has immediate value(gets more people to use google's service and thus display ads to them). Because of the value these dumb applications have, they could help drive AI research and development of general purpose machine learning hardware. Sometimes it's ok to do 'dumb' things.
- jaredklewis 9y ago
  Advanced? Since the earliest AI research, it's hard to think of a time when games, puzzles, and toys were not front and center. Whether writing a chess AI would or a humorous chat bot, a focus on "silly" applications has always been the norm. I'm not against such applications and share your opinion that they are great. But it's not new. The field has always been this way.
vernie 9y ago
Has anybody actually tried it yet? I haven't seen any results outside of this blog post.
- luminiferous 9y ago
  Just did, it worked pretty well. It reminds me a lot of Nintendo's thing where they automatically make a Mii based off a picture of your face, except better. If you don't like the sticker pack that was outputted, you can fix your hair or whatever and try again. Took about 10-20 seconds for the first try, only 1-2 seconds for the second try, so there's probably some caching going on. My only complaint is that it's not super intuitive how to actually get to this feature. You have to be in a chat, go to stickers, go to the add stickers section, and then it'll be in that menu.
  - joefkelley 9y ago
    Strange, I don't see anything in that menu. Haven't been able to figure out how to do it, maybe there's some sort of rolling update happening?
    - antirez 9y ago
      I think it's rolling out slowly.
      - vernie 9y ago
        Oh, so they jumped the gun with this post? Got it.
andybak 9y ago
"Starting to roll out today" - does anyone versed in traditional PR have a say in this new trend in slow roll-outs? I can see how it makes sense from an engineering point of view but I just installed Allo to try it out and it hasn't rolled out to me yet. I'm rather unlikely to remember to try again in a few days/weeks etc. This has happened multiple times in similar scenarios. I dug out my Gear VR to try the new Oculus browser. I didn't get it for 4 weeks (only a particular interest in WebVR kept me coming back to see if it was there). Surely this is squandering good press and good will?
- derefr 9y ago
  In most client apps that obey backend-account feature-flags, the app will introduce (advertise) the feature to you itself when your account gets the switch flipped. AFAICT, they don't expect this announcement to reach or sway anyone who's going to use the feature; this post is more there to serve as genuine news—i.e. it's written to provoke water-cooler "what Google is up to" conversations among developers. (It's on the Google Research blog, after all; what consumer would even see it?)

153 points by ashin 9y ago

that's cool. Google always WOW people.

The feature is technically interesting, but I don't care about Allo. There are enough silly messaging apps out there, evolving in their own silos. I miss the days of the XMPP protocol.

spiderfarmer 9y ago
I have always trouble remembering where a message came in. I have SMS / iMessage, Messenger, Whatsapp, 5 e-mail accounts and a Forum Inbox to worry about. And since you can't exactly flag messages as 'to do' I have to answer immediately or risk forgetting to reply. I hate that.
- mholmes680 9y ago
  Ditto this, on android. I have Messages, which i think is Google's... and i only downloaded it because the apps from Samsung, Verizon, and Facebook went to war in January (on my phone at least) and somehow I ended up getting texts in either the samsung app or verizon but never both, but group conversations in facebook messenger, but only the verizon app would actually allow picture messages to be viewable if i sent them to my mother. I also have Allo, because a (<-- not plural) coworker and I were curious about it. I think it solved that they didn't have facebook but did have apple, or maybe not i don't know. I also downloaded Duo and haven't opened it since, and I had hangouts, but i'm so very angry that Google screwed that up yet again. I have zero confidence in Google products fulfilling any of my needs completely ever again, and I really used to be the Google-champion of my friends... sigh.
  - spiderfarmer 9y ago
    Yeah, Google's been messing up messaging ever since Google Wave.
- mifeng 9y ago
  Me too. On my Pixel, messages will randomly appear either in: * Allo * Hangouts * Messenger (Android) * Messenger (Facebook) * WhatsApp It's like SMS-Roulette.
  - visarga 9y ago
    A possible solution would be to run all third party apps in containers and use computer vision (deep learning) to collect messages and notifications from their screens into a single place, if they don't want to cooperate officially. I don't know the legal implications though. Another app that should run into a container and be post-processed by computer vision is the web browser. We need to contain the browser itself (more privacy) and keep the pesky ads out of our eyes in a way that is impossible to hack by clever scripting or ad-block detection. On the next round, ad publishers would have to create adversarial ads that fool the classifier which would be a whole lot more difficult.
    - wcummings 9y ago
      I just tell everyone to email me. I have one email address. Everyone uses email. Problem solved.
dheera 9y ago
Me too. I do not know any of my friends who are using Allo. Why didn't Google roll out this feature within Hangouts?
- kmicklas 9y ago
  Google has 12354697024785902789027345238907423 messaging apps and no one has any idea why.
- pgodzin 9y ago
  Hangouts is now meant to be intended for enterprise use while Allo is the consumer-focused messaging app
  - deong 9y ago
    A consumer-focused messaging app. There's also Duo for video calls and "Messenger" for SMS (on Android). There's also the older thing called "Messenger" that's still running on all those devices that no one ever updated. On the desktop/browser, I guess there isn't a consumer-focused messaging app anymore. Unless I'm missing something obvious, Google apparently ceded that ground to others. I'm beginning to realize why Allo is as goofy as it is. It's not actually a messaging app. It's a machine learning playground app with a feature to send stuff to other people occasionally. Allo makes more sense as a concept if you look at it that way, though as a product, that's a bonkers idea that basically no one needs. Hence the non-existent user base.
    - technofiend 9y ago
      App fatigue is real... when Captain Kirk flipped open his communicator he didn't select which app to use when requesting a transport. That Google has several apps which compete and conflict with each other is absurd. The fact they keep migrating functionality in and out of them is moreso. Just pick a winner and be done with it. There's not really a competitive advantage to splitting your ecosystem into 5 different communication apps, google, there's really not.
btczeus 9y ago
XMPP is alive: Try Conversations for Android

pwaivers 9y ago

This actually looks pretty cool. Some initial thoughts: - I have never used Allo or really even know what it is. I am downloading it now though. - I hope it does more than just auto-create a Bitmoji character. I wonder how its going to distinguish itself from other avatar creating apps.

0x006A 9y ago

First I have to use a phone number to use an internet based chat system, now I should be excited about some comic figure? Allo - Are you out of your mind?

rawnlq 9y ago

Is anyone working on this for 3d avatars (like in game character creation/customization except automatic)?

thesash 9y ago
Facebook is doing some pretty interesting work in this area https://www.facebook.com/spaces https://www.facebook.com/spaces
zo7 9y ago
Loom.ai does just that: https://www.loomai.com/ https://www.loomai.com/ (disclaimer: I work here) We're still pretty early stage, but hope to open up our developer API/SDK soon!

agjacobson 9y ago

This is childish. Apple's version of this works better, in real time, in FaceTime, because it's above a threshold of kiddiness.

vernie 9y ago
What's Apple's version of this?

rch 9y ago

I'd try the H.R. Giger version.

gene-h 9y ago

This is fucking dumb, and I am absolutely ok with this. The fact that we are able to do these 'dumb' and silly applications is a good sign. It shows that the field has advanced to the point where it is cheap enough to do these 'dumb' applications. Not only that, but this 'dumb' application has immediate value(gets more people to use google's service and thus display ads to them). Because of the value these dumb applications have, they could help drive AI research and development of general purpose machine learning hardware. Sometimes it's ok to do 'dumb' things.

jaredklewis 9y ago
Advanced? Since the earliest AI research, it's hard to think of a time when games, puzzles, and toys were not front and center. Whether writing a chess AI would or a humorous chat bot, a focus on "silly" applications has always been the norm. I'm not against such applications and share your opinion that they are great. But it's not new. The field has always been this way.

vernie 9y ago

Has anybody actually tried it yet? I haven't seen any results outside of this blog post.

luminiferous 9y ago
Just did, it worked pretty well. It reminds me a lot of Nintendo's thing where they automatically make a Mii based off a picture of your face, except better. If you don't like the sticker pack that was outputted, you can fix your hair or whatever and try again. Took about 10-20 seconds for the first try, only 1-2 seconds for the second try, so there's probably some caching going on. My only complaint is that it's not super intuitive how to actually get to this feature. You have to be in a chat, go to stickers, go to the add stickers section, and then it'll be in that menu.
- joefkelley 9y ago
  Strange, I don't see anything in that menu. Haven't been able to figure out how to do it, maybe there's some sort of rolling update happening?
  - antirez 9y ago
    I think it's rolling out slowly.
    - vernie 9y ago
      Oh, so they jumped the gun with this post? Got it.

andybak 9y ago

"Starting to roll out today" - does anyone versed in traditional PR have a say in this new trend in slow roll-outs? I can see how it makes sense from an engineering point of view but I just installed Allo to try it out and it hasn't rolled out to me yet. I'm rather unlikely to remember to try again in a few days/weeks etc. This has happened multiple times in similar scenarios. I dug out my Gear VR to try the new Oculus browser. I didn't get it for 4 weeks (only a particular interest in WebVR kept me coming back to see if it was there). Surely this is squandering good press and good will?

derefr 9y ago
In most client apps that obey backend-account feature-flags, the app will introduce (advertise) the feature to you itself when your account gets the switch flipped. AFAICT, they don't expect this announcement to reach or sway anyone who's going to use the feature; this post is more there to serve as genuine news—i.e. it's written to provoke water-cooler "what Google is up to" conversations among developers. (It's on the Google Research blog, after all; what consumer would even see it?)