Say hello to Google Allo: a smarter messaging app

Re:Say hello to Google Allo: a smarter messaging app by newscracker on Wednesday September 21, 2016 @04:34AM (#12546401)

Does Allo also require one to necessarily allow access to contacts on the device to use it? This was a must in Duo, and so I abandoned the app after denying it permission to access my contacts because it wouldn't work otherwise (like allowing me to enter a phone number manually). Regardless of what other people generally do, I wouldn't want to upload my complete contacts list to a service provider like Google (or Facebook).

Also, the default being not end-to-end encrypted is not favorable to me. But I do like the option of having it available (like Telegram's secret chat).

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Re:Say hello to Google Allo: a smarter messaging app by ccashell on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @12:06PM (#12636532)

I'm not sure I understand your complaint/concern. We're talking about text chat and video chat clients, and you're concerned with giving them access to your contacts? How are you going to contact your contacts with the apps if they don't know who your contacts are?

All communication apps are going to require access to your contacts so that your contact information can be used to communicate with your contacts. Duo and Allo are tied to phone numbers. They use phone numbers to identify users, so without access to phone numbers (contacts), they can't function. This is the same as all text message (SMS) clients, and the same way that many other chat clients work (Signal, WhatsApp, etc.).

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