When comparing Allo vs Line, the Slant community recommends Line for most people. In the question“What are the best messaging apps for iOS?” Line is ranked 9th while Allo is ranked 30th. The most important reason people chose Line is:
The caveat is that they are in Japan, but the app is commonly used to 'follow' public figures.
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 Large celebrity and public figure usage rate
The caveat is that they are in Japan, but the app is commonly used to 'follow' public figures.
Pro Enormous, constantly updated stamp collection
Since many brands use stamps for promotional purposes, everything from movies to food brands to Taylor Swift have released stamp collections.
Pro Photo filter and editing capabilities
Users have in-app editing tools, as well as Line's separate camera application, which has additional tools.
Pro Integrated social network
Similar to Facebook's timeline.
Cons
Con Not yet released (should release in summer 2016)
Con Account is locked to the Phone Number & Device
The entire account is locked to the phone number, which cannot be changed. If the application is installed on a new device with the same phone number, the previous account data will be wiped.
Con Users have been concentrated in Japan
Of the 360+ million registered users, the top country is Japan (50 million). Thailand and Indonesia are 2nd and 3rd with 33 and 30 million, respectively, with very small market penetration in the US (10 million, 11th place).