Google Allo May Not Be Around Much Longer

Those of you who use Google Allo regularly might want to buckle in, because it might not be around much longer. Though it feels like Google Allo just launched – it's only been around since late 2016, after all – Google may already be looking to move away from it. So say new rumors, at any rate, which don't paint a very pretty picture for the state of Allo's development.

Back in April, Google said that it was pausing work on Allo to shift its focus to its iMessage competitor, dubbed simply Chat. It seems now that this pause in development may end up being more permanent than originally expected, as most of the team that was once at work on Allo is now off on other projects, namely Android Messages.

So says an anonymous source that spoke to 9to5Google in a new report. According to that source, pretty much the entire Allo team is now working to port its features over to Messages. That makes some degree of sense, as Allo hasn't received a major update for almost a year at this point, which is strange for an app that's only a couple of years old.

It's been a somewhat turbulent week for Google's apps. Over the weekend, we heard a rumor that claimed Google is looking to shut down Hangouts. Though Google eventually confirmed that Hangouts will be shut down at some point in the future, it also said that it's planning to migrate existing users over to two new apps: Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet.

Now the attention turns to Allo and its fate, though Google may have chosen to delay the announcement that it's dropping support for Allo after the reaction to reports that it's shuttering Hangouts. Hopefully we'll see what happens soon enough, but if 9to5Google's report is accurate, Allo may not be long for this world. Stay tuned for more.