If you’re not able to use the new Web client for Allo, a new unofficial desktop client for Mac and Windows may be just the thing you’re looking for.
Allo for web launched recently, but the requirement to use Chrome has meant it’s not for everyone. If you use Safari, Firefox or (heaven forbid) Edge or IE, you can now download an unofficial desktop client for Mac or Windows PCs.
The desktop client is open-source, with the code available on GitHub. According to the developer it’s a wrapper around the Google built web client, and is built using using the Nativefier command line tool.
The app has notifications using either Mac or Windows native notifications and it’s completely separate to the Chrome browser. The app has an icon you can add to your taskbar, dock or desktop.
The app is not in any way supported by, or endorsed by Google, so use at your own risk, but it seems fairly straight forward. If you want to give it a go, head over to allofordesktop.com and try it out now.
This is an electron app, so it’s pretty much running your own special version of chromium to load the allo web client.
It is also available for Linux