Allo And Duo Are In Google Play For Android Now (Sort Of)

Google's new message apps Allo and Duo have been released to Google Play for Android devices in a new form – not actually available, just appearing there as placeholders. If you were looking for the release of Google's new smart messenger app – attached to your phone number and ready to go to war with iMessage, you're in luck. Sort of. Users such as yourself will be able to see the apps in the places where they'll be listed in the Google Play app store, BUT, you wont be able to download them until Google actually makes them available.

As you'll remember from our Allo feature yesterday, Google will be releasing this app as a connected-to-your-phone-number sort of messenger app that uses the web to send images, texts, links, emoji, and a bunch more oddities we don't yet know about fully.

Above you'll see a basic set of features that'll be coming with Allo. This and Duo will be released later this year – this Summer, says Google – on both Android and iOS. There's currently no "presentation" video for Allo made by Google, but there is one for Duo.

Above the Duo video from Google should make the functionality of this app very clear. Do you know of any other app that does this same thing with video chat?

See our Feature on Duo to see what we're pretty sure Google is going to war with.

You can see the listing for what Google has called "Google Allo" in the Google Play app store listing for Allo now. The code-name for this app is Fireball.

You can see what Google has given the app store title "Google Duo" in the Google Play app store listing for Duo now, too. Google has given this app the code name Tachyon.

*Tachyon: a hypothetical particle that travels faster than light. See also: Tachyon Pulse: blast of energy weaponized in several different fictional universes: World of Warcraft, Marvel Comics, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and more.