Google stores 'transient' Allo messages until you delete them

Back when Google first announced its brand-new chat app Allo, the company told The Verge it would only store messages "transiently," not indefinitely. But since May, when the app was first announced at Google I/O, things have changed a bit in that regard. A Google spokesperson confirmed that messages are now stored on Google's end as long as that chat history is available on your personal device. But once you choose to delete the history, it's also deleted on Google's end -- so users do have control over just how long their messages persist for. Google told me that it made this change after the company pushed the app out to wide testing around the company; it found that the experience was better when it saved chat history for longer.