Skip to main content

Google Allo’s second bot, Lucky, tosses GIFs into your conversations

Image used with permission by copyright holder
Google Allo, a messaging app that first debuted the company’s artificially intelligent Assistant, now lets users chat with another “bot.” That bot, named “Lucky,” won’t give you daily news or weather updates like the Assistant, but it will toss a GIF into your conversations.

Lucky is a bot that finds you GIFs based on what you ask it for, and you can call upon it the same way you trigger the Google Assistant. Type “@Lucky,” and then write what you want to find as a GIF. For example, if you write “@Lucky Hello,” the bot will likely toss a GIF of someone waving.

A part of Lucky’s charm is that the GIFs it produces are random, unlike GIF search on Facebook Messenger where you can choose something specific to your liking. It looks like the bot just runs a Google search for a related GIF to the phrase, rather than pulling one from a GIF service like Giphy.

You can still search for GIFs in Allo without the use of Lucky via Gboard, formerly Google Keyboard. The bot’s name certainly alludes to the “I’m feeling lucky” option in Google Search, which takes you straight to the first result.

At present, Lucky is the only other bot you can call upon after the “@Google” Assistant. But this seems to be what Google’s larger strategy is for Allo — the ability to use several different bots on the platform for various tasks.

It’s unclear which version of Allo you need to be on to use Lucky — we didn’t receive an update, so it may simply be a server-side switch. Still, to get it, you can update your app to the latest version on the Google Play Store as well as on the iOS App Store. You may have to wait a few days to see the new bot.

Editors' Recommendations

Julian Chokkattu
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…
Google just announced 9 new features for your Android phone and watch
Samsung Galaxy S23 showing Google Photos

Google has announced some big new features coming to Android and Wear OS devices during the Mobile World Congress 2023 event in Barcelona, Spain. These new features are beginning to roll out starting today, February 27, with others to come later.
New Android features available starting February 27

Google Drive users will now be able to do freehand annotation on Android phones and tablets. This means you are now able to use a stylus or your fingers to annotate PDFs directly in the Google Drive app on Android.

Read more
Google’s Android monopoly finds its biggest challenge, and Apple might be next
Apps screen on the Google Pixel 7.

The Competition Commission of India slapped Google with two hefty fines over anti-competitive strategies that have allowed it to dominate the mobile ecosystem in India. Totaling over $250 million, the penalties reprimand Google for forcing smartphone makers to avoid Android forks, prefer Google’s web search service, and pre-install popular cash cows like YouTube on phones.

Google was also disciplined for forcing its own billing system on developers that allowed the giant to take up to a 30% share of all in-app purchases for applications listed on the app store. Google is not really a stranger to titanic penalties; The EU handed Google a record-breaking fine of approximately $5 billion in 2018 for abusing its dominant market position — a penalty that was upheld in September this year following Google’s appeal.

Read more
Google Play Store helps find the apps invading your privacy
Instagram app on the Google Play Store on an Android smartphone.

Google has implemented a feature that requires app makers to disclose what data their apps are taking from users. Starting today, Android users will be able to see specific information about their apps' data collection through the Google Play Store. The data is accessible in the Play Store via the "Data Safety" tab listed in the information section for all apps.

With Google's announcement that the feature's rollout is live, the company notes that not all apps will be showing what privacy data they collect immediately. App makers have until July 20, 2022, to provide the Play Store with privacy information, making the feature something of a gradual rollout. It's likely that apps that take more types of data (like social media apps) will take longer to post the required info due to the sheer number of data points they collect when compared to something simpler such as an offline game.

Read more