Goodbye Google Allo: How to download your chat history and media from Google’s instant messaging app?

Instant messaging app Google Allo is shutting down today. The company has announced that Google Allo, which was launched back in 2016 alongside Google Duo will be shutting down today as the service never gained enough attention and user base. There weren’t many people who used the chatting app from Google except the ones who used it as an option to save and download all their chat history and media uploaded on the app.

Google has also published a small tutorial through which people could download their chat history and data from the app before it is officially shut down.

Steps to download data and chat history from Google Allo:

• To download the media and chat history from your Google Allo account, you need to have the latest version of Google Allo installed on your device (Android or iPhone).
• After opening the app, head to the Menu option and then click on Settings.
• Once in the Settings menu, click on the ‘Chat’ option. Once clicked, you will see two options – ‘Export messages from chats’ and ‘Export stored media from chats’. It should be noted that the ‘export messages’ will only include the text messages; and the media exchanged will not be included when this option is clicked. To get the media and photos the user needs to click the ‘Export stored media from chats’.
• Once clicked on any of the two options, you will be asked if you want to save the file on your device, and then it will be downloaded.

The media on Google Allo is saved in CSV file format which includes the chat details. The details include the Conversation name, ID of the user, the sender of the message, type of message, and content of the message. The downloaded file is saved in a ZIP file (compressed).

Google also mentioned on its support page that along with deleting the Google Allo app the company will be deleting all the user’s messages and media. Google won’t store any messages or user data from the app, even the incognito messages will be deleted. But it should be kept in mind that the chat’s backups saved on Google Drive or iCloud accounts will not be readable after the deletion of the app and the users would have to delete the backups manually.

Google support page writes “We’re saying goodbye to Allo on March 12, 2019.”

Besides Google Allo, Inbox by Gmail and Google’s URL shortner named Goo.gl will also be discontinued by the end of the month.