Google Allo Update Adds Animated Emojis, Google Assistant Icon, and More

Google Allo might not be a very popular chat application, as seen from its recent performance on Google Play charts, but the search giant has now added some useful features to its simplified messaging platform with the latest update. The update brings along a dedicated icon to call upon Google Assistant, animated emojis, and an easier way to search for GIF images from inside the application.

Earlier, users had to type @google inside the text field to call up the digital assistant but can now simply tap the dedicated Google Assistant icon to get its service. This change is likely to encourage more people to avail the service than before. "We're adding a shortcut to make it faster and easier to bring the Google Assistant into chats with friends," the search giant said in its blog post.

Apart from the dedicated Google Assistant icon, the update brings along animated emojis to the app. In order to animate an emoji, users need to press and hold the send button and then drag up to "to see it come to life," Google said. Currently, there are only 10 emojis that support the animation feature in the app.

Google has decided to make it even easier to search for GIFs while in conversations with the latest update. In order to search for relevant GIF images, you can click the smiley icon in the chat bar and swipe towards left side till you reach extreme right. Then you will find the option to Pull for GIFs. Then you can start searching for the GIFs by typing in the text field.

Users can always make use of Lucky chatbot to search for GIFs if they prefer.

The update has already started rolling out for Android and Google says that it will be making its way to iOS soon.

We will have to wait and see if the new updates will be able to bring users to the chat app that otherwise seems to be spiralling on its way towards irrelevance.