Google Allo gets 'Lucky', a Gif chatbot with a heart

Google is currently rolling out a new bot on its Allo messenger. While Allo’s opening highlight was Google Assistant, a bot that helps you get things done, we now have a new addition called ‘Lucky’ which will find Gifs for you depending on how you feel, so that you can share your innermost feelings with others on the network.

In what appears to be a rather “touchy” subject, Google’s Allo’s newest chatbot is not impressive because it does not read your mind but just gives you GIFs based on what you tell it. Telling Lucky “I love you” will end up with a reply showing a related GIF. Indeed this is something that can easily be accomplished with a third-party GIF keyboard. In fact, we would have been impressed if these GIF would automatically be suggested in conversation, instead of requesting them.

We also know that Google calls it ‘Lucky’ in honor of the venerable ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button on Google Search.

For now, however, not everyone will get to use ‘Lucky’, as it seems to have shown up only for a limited few. 9to5Google  says that the Lucky bot will be rolled out gradually over the next couple of days. Lucky the chatbot is available for some “lucky” iOS and Android users of the app and will be available to many more gradually.

Lucky does not need the latest .apk file, so installing the latest software update for the Allo app on Android will not see it pop up at your service. In short, this is a server-side activation, so all you can do is wait until it pops up on your app as a notification. Else you can just try your luck and send a message to @lucky to see if it answers you.