Google Duo, a simple 1-to-1 video calling app

Why didn't they just update hangouts? I actually use hangouts for video calls with relative frequency, and I wish it was better adapted to changes in network speed like they say Duo is. I think it would be better if "Duo" was just integrated into hangouts as an update. I like hangouts because it allows me to use one app for voice, text and video.

I know these will be preinstalled on Android, but many friends and family use iOS and I will feel silly asking them to install Duo and Allo.

Hangouts is able to mix voice, video and text just fine. Why start requiring separate apps?

This is Google at its dumbest. They are squandering the small amount of momentum Hangouts has.

I'm still putting my money on vector.im and matrix.org. Closed source communication apps are not appealing to me, even if they come with an E2E promise.

From a business perspective this makes sense for Google. A big problem with Skype was always the lack of ubiquity. Lot of people had it, but it required another install and explicit configuration. Now that Skype is nearly bundled with W10 and WebRTC has made skype.com trivial, the gap for Google to move in is closing. If this rolls out with Google branded Android, people will use it irrespective of its merits (a la bundled Internet Explorer). Interop on iOS makes it stand out from Facetime. There's always room to change terms later when it becomes a household name.

Also, with all these services adding an E2E sticker on their communications, Google's hand was forced, they're not trend setters here and they shouldn't be applauded for being extremely late to the privacy game.

Sounds like Duo has a simple user experience, which is great. But it doesn't solve the eye-contact problem with video calls today.

When you look at the person on the screen whom you're talking to, that person sees you looking away, because you're not looking into the camera, which is somewhere on the edge of the screen. So you don't make eye contact with the person you're talking to.

And for me, that makes video calls feel weird.

Wow, I'm so glad they made yet another video calling app. I was almost beginning to feel like I knew how to call the people I care about. So glad I'll start hearing 'I'll call you on Duo', which will be great when I'm at my desktop computer.

Guess i'm in the minority of users here who loves this app and really wanted a facetime like thing on Android.

Hangouts work, but it's heavy and not a good experience overall. And facetime is ios only, so Duo will definitely bridge this gap.

I read on a Verge's article that Google wants to make Hangouts enterprise focussed by integrating more into the Google apps and keep Allo/Duo as the consumer focused communication apps which i think is a great strategy.

Once all of android users get this pre installed, i think its not difficult to get rest of the users use this.

No desktop support, one device only, they must be joking.[1]

I just hope it can be disabled with rest of the Google bloatware when I buy my next phone.

[1]http://www.reddit.com/r/android/comments/4xxnjl/_/d6jawai

I still think this is a huge mistake. It's great it's easy to use but now Google has two products that do video chat and they do not work together; why? If they eventually discontinue Hangouts then now we have to use two apps for texting and video?

The past several years have shown that providing a more integrated experienced typically brings a better user experience so this just smacks as a mistake.

It's already bad enough that I have a row of chat apps (WhatsApp, Messenger, Hangouts, Skype, Slack, Telegram etc.) on my phone because I can't get everyone I know to agree on one app and now, Google's trying to get me to add yet another icon to that list! I love Telegram but I couldn't get more than a few friends to try it out and even then, no one checks their Telegram anymore because none of THEIR friends are on it. Even though I love the tech here, I can't get enough people to try and use it.

Not sure why this had to be its own app. Could have just been included into Allo. Also, all of the other apps I mentioned above have some form a desktop app (which is in a way, the biggest factor for me considering that's where I spend most of my time). Sigh! Great tech, terrible packaging.

I don't have a number on my Pad...there is not even a Sim in there. Why can't it be just their damn Google account?! I dont even want to give my phone number to them and when I'm in a foreign country i don't want them to easy Switch between WiFi and the super expensive Roaming just because I went in the wrong corner of the Hotel room...

Have they announced when it will be discontinued?

Wow this is so much the future... Between my 4g video native capability, skype (remember), facetime, etc. that was missing. Thank you Google for putting well-paid engineers to solvant this.

Why is Google launching multiple apps with similar functionalities?

They already had Hangouts, they recently launched a group sharing app "Spaces". And now a new video calling app "Duo". They also have an app "Allo" which is another chatting platform.

I am not complaining or anything, I am just curious about what are they planning to do with their old apps? i.e. Hangouts?

On the same week that they discontinued Hangouts on Air in favor of YouTube? Why is Google always making and closing stuff?

Sounds promising. But not sure what this adds on top of Hangouts, which has a great group (and of course one to one) video calling feature. The only difference seems that Duo works with phone numbers, not Google Accounts.

"Announces", yes; "releases", no. The Google Play Store offers only a "pre-register" button. Yet it has 4.9 stars already.

Looking forward to seeing an analysis of the protocol. Does it go through Google servers, or is it really peer to peer? How does the "end to end encryption" work? How are the keys generated and exchanged? Do the servers have the keys? Are you sure?

End-to-end encrypted but not opensource is just trusting that it's really (well)encrypted.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Ok, just a FaceTime clone. When Apple added it to iOS it seemed redudant initially (because of Skype etc), but now everyone is using it all the time, because it's phone number based: It's a success.

So the real question is, if they wanted to make this, what the hell took them so long?

It really smells like a mistake, and catch-up, almost pitiful at this point.

> You shouldn’t have to worry about whether your call will connect, or if your friend is using the same type of device as you are.

...From the blurb from app that only runs on two operating systems (notably excluding Windows Phone), is proprietary (preventing third party clients from being written for other systems), and has no support for desktop operating systems (laptops are devices too).

On the last point, I suppose mobile-only for messengers is the new normal, but I for one frequently use iMessage and FaceTime from my MacBook in addition to my phone - depending on which device is closer, mainly - so Allo would be a significant downgrade for me. For video calls, laptops have an advantage over phones if there's more than one person on your side of the call, since you can get farther away from the camera to let everyone into the picture, without awkwardly keeping your arm held out horizontally or whatever.

Wasn't WebRTC going to solve all this (e.g. https://appr.tc)? What happened, has it become browser cruft?

No reason to get excited about this, they'll just abandon it in a year or two like the rest of their products which aren't selling ads.

I'm going to presume that this isn't available to anyone who has a Google Apps account, as that has been the trend of nearly all product launches by Google recently.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/play/86WVa8b_...

Not available to Apps accounts:

* Google Family Library Sharing (Android apps sharing)

* Google Play Music Family Sharing (music collection sharing)

* Project Fi

* Google Spaces

* YouTube Red

* YouTube Music

Given that is most of the recent product launches, the chances of Duo and Allo being added to that list would appear to be very high.

I think there's definitely space for a video conference app that's simpler then Hangouts and cross-platform in contrast to Facetime.

Here's the US play store link where you can pre-register https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...

Is this using the same parts underneath as hangouts?

I still like google talk better. It was simpler. Elegant. And it was paradise for IM lovers.

In my entire post tech life and post tech environment I have never seen anyone use, talk or desire to have a video call. (Save 1 when a patron tested FaceTime on their new iPhone.)

What will make video calling desireable for the average Joe?

Why would one use this when similar functionality (Hangouts video streaming) has just been killed and moved to Youtube Live?

Facetime benefits from Apple's consistent hardware compression.

It's why Skype and other platforms have had such a hard time touching it in terms of video quality.

Knock Knock feature is probably the worst feature i can think of to put in a video calling app.

It sounds so fun rejecting a loved ones call because you're busy.

Is there anything currently that works similarly without a google or Facebook account? My dad is so computer/phone illiterate that he cannot/won't register for either of these.

It should work across iPhone/Android.

I ask because video calling between my son and my dad is no longer as simple as FaceTime after I switched to Android

yay! one more app to do the same thing, but "simpler" "faster" and now its "human"

here is what Hangouts was described as

https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/google-hangouts-now-...

simpler, faster, beautiful

and what more, now I have to use ONLY my mobile to use duo, which means no more comfort of my mac or desktop, I have to keep my phone attached to my face. yay!!

I taught my technology challenged mom to use the terrible hangouts interface, now I have to teach her Allo? thanks, I am moving her to facetime or skype. at least they work reliably and no danger of a new epyks or timefaceme improvments anytime soon

How many similar apps do we have already? We are increasingly solving problems that dont exist.

Are the same people responsible for Microsoft's endless rebranding of products and services now working at Google?

It's exhausting keeping track of what's either just been released or cancelled on any particular day.

Man this and allo looks really interesting. I really can't wait for it to come out in Canada. I definitely wanna know how these product managers/owners or product feature creators are doing it in Google.

What's in this for Google? Another source of information to collate?

It sounds like they're just trying to replace Facetime. I know my parent adore Facetime but they don't know all about this email stuff. They just know they want to call me.

Is anyone able to download this? I am trying to download this on iOS, the App Store is giving me the message "this application is not available to download the in the US Store"

strange!

I still long for the days of a real gtalk native app

Can't wait to hear how they're going to change it four times then abandon it and announce they're working more on Hangouts.

Terrible name there is already a popular security auth app called Duo with a similarly named mobile app. https://duo.com/

This is likely trademark infringement because they are both on the app store and it is easy to confuse the two apps and they are both the top 2 apps now on the play store