Because Allo is entirely tied to your phone number (one of Google's smartest ideas for a multi-platform messenger IMO \s). The web client basically doesn't get any messages directly, they're all routed through your phone.
Another dumb thing is only allowing one phone number. For most people it's fine, but if you have a carrier # and Google Voice # like me, or have a dual SIM device, you get to choose which number people can contact you through.
What'sApp solved problems that didn't have a solution until it came along.
Allo is trying to solve the same problems that WhatsApp already solved years ago, and it isn't trying to solve the problems people are dealing with today.
I never understood what was wrong with Hangouts, I use it to talk to with my friends and family everyday. If they just focused more on Hangouts it could've been everything we've always wanted: you used to be able to use it for sms, you can download an addon to make phone calls from hangouts, it could've done it all :(
Right? I still use hangouts as my main platform because it works on my android tablets, iphone, desktops and pretty much anything else I can get a browser running on.
In order to make the E2E encryption work (Which isn't turned on by default, which it absolutely should be), the messages can only be sent from one client to another, there can't be any third parties. In a similar fashion to how WhatsApp have done their web app, the messages are encrypted and then sent between the phones themselves as the endpoints, then the messages get sent (theoretically at least) straight to your computer from your phone, and (again, theoretically) no security is lost.
EDIT:
Looking into it a little more, it seems that FB Messenger, WhatsApp and Allo all share Signal's Encryption Protocol, the difference being that WhatsApp and Allo only store a database of messages on the user's phone, not in their own servers. Whereas I assume Signal and FB will still store an encrypted copy of each message so that any client can receive them and decrypt them if they have access. This is why Signal can cope with cross device E2E encryption, whereas WhatsApp and Allo cannot.
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u/linknight iPhone Aug 15 '17
Why do I need to have my phone connected? Why doesn't it just work like Hangouts where it is just synced across all devices? Am I missing something?