Google Allo Selfie Stickers Are Cool, but Don’t Worry Too Much
Bitmoji Fans: There is a new cartoon app you will want to see. It’s more aesthetically pleasing and easier to use, but not easy to share.
In the latest update to Google Allo , a mobile instant messaging app released last September for Android and iOS users, Google has a new feature: Selfie Stickers , a custom caricature created using a photo of any user.
The technology behind this feature (currently only available to Android users) provides a unique experience. Google uses machine learning and neural networks “to analyze image pixels and algorithmically determine attribute values by looking at pixel values to measure color, shape, or texture.” Basically, the app creates a cartoon sticker illustrated by storyboard artist Lamar Abrams that actually resembles what you look like.
Something similar already exists
The overall concept is very similar to Bitmoji, a personal emoji add-on app created by Bitstrips in 2014. But Google’s Selfie Sticker has an edge over Bitmoji when it comes to user-friendliness and streamlining the emoji creation process.
Bitmoji cartoon avatars rely on users to choose features for themselves. This is great for personalization, as everything from wardrobe and physique to eyebrows and hats can be customized. But it also leaves it up to the user to choose how they think they look. And let’s face it – we are often not the best judges about our own appearance. If you strive for accuracy, Bitmojis leaves a lot to be desired.
With Google’s Selfie Stickers, the app does all the emoji creation work for you. So if you’re distraught about which pair of eyes best represents your own, don’t worry – Allo is here to capture your true self.
How Allo Selfie Sticker Works
In the Allo app, you take a selfie and get a cartoon in a matter of seconds. You can then tweak your face to make minor changes where the neural network might have gone wrong. When all is said and done, you have 22 custom selfie stickers and they look really good.
This is a stark contrast to the Bitmoji creation process, where you have to carefully choose every aspect of your appearance. Whether you choose the Bitmoji or Bistrips style, the end result will be significantly less aesthetic than an Allo sticker.
This is where the problem is
When you look at the quality of personalized emoticons and the process of creating them, Allo is the clear winner for the consumer. But the Allo selfie sticker has one major limitation: it only works in the Allo messaging app. Bitmoji, on the other hand, can be transmitted via SMS text message, iMessage owned by Facebook WhatsApp, Gmail, Messenger, Slack and other messaging platforms by installing it on the keyboard. Users can also link Bitmoji to their Snapchat account – the app boasts 166 million daily active users and is a favorite among millennials.
Allo hasn’t really taken off, with 10 million downloads at the end of last year, paralleling the 1.2 billion monthly active users of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger . By limiting its use of the Allo selfie sticker, Google is limiting its potential to actually using the messaging app on a regular basis. For the user, this means that you won’t be able to easily showcase your cool new selfie sticker to anyone other than other Allo users unless you take a screenshot, crop and send the sticker as an image, or click and send it. While the latter requires going into the Allo app every time you want to use the selfie sticker, and delivers an automatic text with personalized emojis, prompting the recipient to download the messaging app.
Most likely, Google hopes to increase Allo’s active user base by offering selfie stickers, but the company could be unfair to this feature (and the technology that supports it) by not creating a separate app for it. Or at least it should help its users and allow them to easily share selfie stickers across different platforms through a keyboard app.
For the user as it stands, Allo personal emoticons are easier to create and provide a better product, but lack the ability to share.
Update: This story has been updated to cover how to share the selfie sticker on platforms other than Allo and the auto-text that comes with it.