Ablo: App that turns two strangers into friends
Ablo is a social networking app that functions as a bridge between you and a stranger. It connects you with a random user and expects both of you to talk with each other. The user can be a man, woman, girl, boy or an elderly citizen. Ablo was awarded the best Google Play Store app of 2019. The app is available for Android and IOS operating systems.
Getting started
Ablo requires account registration. Registering an Ablo account is a three-step procedure. In the first step, you must enter an email address and then tap on the submit button. In 2nd step, you’ll be asked to connect your Google account with the app. The 3rd step requires you to enter a password. Ablo will log you in immediately when you enter your desired password and tap the submit button. It will also send a confirmation email to your inbox.
Features
The app finds online users and connects you with them. The user can be of any geographic location. Ablo allows you to select the target country when you reach 300 miles. Once you choose the country, Ablo will display profiles of the users belonging to the country you’ve selected. Miles is a metric the app uses to rank its users.
Note: As the app is location-based, you should turn on GPS on your phone. If you don’t do so, Ablo will detect the location from your IP address. This location might be inaccurate. This is because the servers that assign your device an IP might be located in a different state.
Once Ablo connects you with a stranger, it will display the profile picture of the person. If you think that you should not chat with the person, you can switch to another user by tapping the close button. The stranger will either start the conversation or you should start it. Ablo will suggest you to ask the person something about the user’s country or something popular nearby or a random question. When the chat interface appears on the screen, you’ll see the user’s profile picture, an option to exit the chat and three tiny vertical dots. If you tap these dots, you’ll see options to :
- Enable/disable translation.
- Add the stranger as a friend.
You can invite your friends on Facebook, WhatsApp or in your contact list to join you on Ablo. When your friend accepts the invitation and creates his/her Ablo account, you’ll be awarded 500 miles.
Video sharing
Ablo allows its users to upload videos. Each time you run the app, it will display a tiny display picture of the users that have uploaded the video. To see the video, tap the floating video icon displayed at the top right corner of the phone’s screen. Ablo displays the number of times the video was watched, and the country/name of the user that has uploaded the video.
Ablo has a strict video uploading policy. The video uploaded by the user should feature the user. Also, the surrounding behind the user should be visible in the video. Ablo’s staff will watch the video before approving it.
Translate
Ablo can translate the words you type on the fly. The instant translation feature comes in handy when the stranger is a non-English speaking person.
Messages
Ablo displays the messages you’ve received and sent in its “messages” interface. This interface will remind you of Facebook messenger. It displays the last conversation you had with a person and the person’s profile picture. To see the full conversation, you must tap on the message and to see the user’s profile, you must tap on his/her photo. Ablo supports text and video chats. It lets you upload GIFs and images as well.
Rankings
The Rankings interface of Ablo displays the list of friends that have been rewarded the most miles. It is divided into two sections – Weekly and Overall.
Settings
Ablo’s settings interface is divided into the following sections:
- Profile and account.
- Languages.
- Notifications.
- Help Center
- Safety
The Profile and Account section allows you to change your name, gender birth date, email address, password, and phone number. It also lets you delete your Ablo account.
You can change the default translation language and the app’s language from the “Languages” section. You can prevent the app from translating a language you know by choosing the language you can speak from this interface.
The Notifications interface allows you to configure the push, email notification settings. Help Center and Safety interfaces have answers to various questions you might have about the app.
Screenshots
Pros
Safe: Videos and profiles are manually checked by the Ablo company’s staff.
Clean UI: The interface employs beautiful colors and is easy to use.
No spam and ads: All users that I found in the app were normal users that are looking for someone to chat with. Ablo didn’t display advertisements when I was using it.
Cons
- None
- Features
- Performance
- UI
Summary
Ablo borrows features of social networking and chatroulette apps. Nevertheless, it is a great app to make new friends and learn about their culture, hobbies, country, etc.
February 4, 2020 @ 4:42 pm
I never experienced something that horrible as the treatment I received by Ablo management, specially after suffering constant abuse by their users. The contrast between their funny design and the sadness inside the App is drastic.
The proposal is clear: a multi-cultural platform where you can meet people from every corner of the world with a translator integrated. Sounds amazing…but this is just an excuse for horrible behavior, and arbitrary decisions by the moderators.
To make it short, most of men in Ablo are using the App as a giant Tinder. Not a surprise. That results in absolutely no interest on talking to other men, and said by female users, sexual harassment. It is terrible, and they only way to prevent it this is buying coins, so you can use them to skip those places where you CONSTANTLY get the same. Spend 1 hour “traveling” and you will perfectly understand it. But hey, don’t say it loud if not Ablo will expose that “maybe this is not your platform”. Easy to invite users with criteria to leave instead of facing the truth and accept that a small team can’t control people from all around the world.
But sexism is not the only problem: the platform is also aware of religious radicalism. Some people constantly report accounts that disagree with their beliefs, and they point those who simply have no interest on talking about those subjects. Do you plan to use diplomacy to avoid those conversations? Bad luck: even that is a terrible offense for fanatics, who place unjustified reports after their failed attempt to convert you.
I already know 5 cases of close friends who were invited to leave the platform with colorful notifications saying “your messages are not right”, with absolutely NO CHANCE to create another account. Again, I know them personally and they are great people trying to explore the world…trough an App that ended up having no control on their users. Once I saw the outcome of my conversation with the moderators, I was not surprised at all.
So let’s make it clear: do you plan to spend time in Ablo? Well, paying or not (and believe me, that is a constant reminder) you have absolutely no warranty of keeping your progress. The moment you find someone who decides to report you for fun, it’s over. Get ready to spend most of your time dealing with sexist, racist and radical people: and good luck, because no one in Ablo is gonna look after you.
An App promoting the utopia of a world where people respect each other, but does nothing to make it possible. Bravo!