When comparing Allo vs Instagram Direct, the Slant community recommends Allo for most people. In the question“What are the best messaging apps for iOS?” Allo is ranked 30th while Instagram Direct is ranked 31st. The most important reason people chose Allo is:
Your chat history is persisted by default (you can send incognito end-to-end encrypted self-destructing messages instead if you so desire).
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Persists history
Your chat history is persisted by default (you can send incognito end-to-end encrypted self-destructing messages instead if you so desire).
Pro Allows self-destructing messages
You can send messages that will be removed from both parties after a defined period of time.
Pro Allows end-to-end encrypted incognito messages
Pro Assistant
The assistant is a bot that can help book, look up locations, restaurants, set up calendar events, etc.
Pro Full quality pictures
Pro Video & photo messages
Photos have to be cropped to be square.
Pro Filters
That can be applied to photos and videos.
Pro Group messages
With up to 15 people.
Cons
Con Not yet released (should release in summer 2016)
Con Walled garden
Can't communicate with people outside of Instagram.