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You don't need a Google account to use Allo. Being phone-number driven for setup and how you are identified within the App is really the key to answering your questions.

From articles/reviews of the app from official publications, Google is saying a Desktop app is in the works, it's just not ready yet.

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I hate this sudden desire to have every account keyed on a phone number. I know 3 phone numbers - mine, my wife's and my parent's. Oh, I still remember my friends from elementary school's parent's phone numbers too, but honestly, I haven't had to think about learning a new phone number in over a decade. I'm honestly about an inch away from shutting off my own phone number, which has been a google voice number for 6 years now, because the only calls I ever get on it are spammers asking me about my electric bill. People who I care about email me, or use google talk/Hangouts. I know all my friend's email addresses. Email addresses are customizable and easy to remember. We don't need to keep working around a 100 year old call routing problem by memorizing area codes and routing exchanges. Hangouts, or Google Talk used to support people signing up with whatever their email address was, and you could reach them by knowing their email address. Why am I being asked to think about 10 digit geographically segregated numbers again?!

right, so just add phone number accounts to hangouts.

It really should've been that simple. Then take from allo incognito conversations, stickers, and smart replies, and you just have a nice hangouts update.

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