Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

googleblog.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 379 posts

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

#21

Post by chetanahuja »

sidcool wrote: post #18

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.

"The only difference seems that Duo works with phone numbers, not Google Accounts"

Which is a huuuuuge difference. This is the same factor that made whatsapp so popular on the smartphone compared to all other other chat apps that were popular at the time (including google talk) but where each system was using a different account creation/login flow on that tiny screen, Whatsapp came along and had the brilliant insight/accident of simply supporting your phone's addressbook to find you and your friends. Even facebook chat couldn't keep up with them even though facebook app was installed pretty much on every internet connected phone at the time. Rest is history.

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

#22

Post by dingo_bat »

karma_vaccum123 wrote: post #20

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.

> Hangouts is able to mix voice, video and text just fine.

For varying values of "just fine". For me, hangouts is probably the worst performing app on mobile, desktop and tablet. It's so bad that even Skype shames it. And FaceTime...well let's not even compare.

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

#23

Post by karma_vaccum123 »

sidcool wrote: post #18

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.

This limits and subtracts from Hangouts for no real benefit.

Hangouts works on phones, tablets and laptops. It does voice, video and text. Fragmenting these features across apps and devices seems to be a major step backwards...but apparently two apps is simpler than one?

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

#24

Post by gruez »

helloworld wrote: post #12

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 call…

1. build an algorithm to detect (using open cv?) and adjust eye position so they look correct to the viewer 2. patent it and license it to apple/google/microsoft 3. ??? 4. profit

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

#25

Post by karma_vaccum123 »

dingo_bat wrote: post #22
karma_vaccum123 wrote: post #20

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.

> Hangouts is able to mix voice, video and text just fine. For varying values of "just fine". For me, hangouts is probably the worst performing app on mobile, desktop and tablet. It's so bad that even Skype shames it. And FaceTime...well let's not even compare.

So why can't it be fixed?

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

#26

Post by spdionis »

witty_username wrote: post #11
serpix wrote: post #7

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

Some searching yielded https://appear.in/ (I'm not affiliated with that website)

Which by the way works very well for our daily meetings.

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

#27

Post by sidcool »

karma_vaccum123 wrote: post #23
sidcool wrote: post #18

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.

This limits and subtracts from Hangouts for no real benefit. Hangouts works on phones, tablets and laptops. It does voice, video and text. Fragmenting these features across apps and devices seems to be a major step backwards...but apparently two apps is simpler than one?

This strategy seems to have born out of Facebook's success with breaking up the app into specialized features (Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp etc.)

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

#28

Post by lern_too_spel »

karma_vaccum123 wrote: post #20

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.

Worse, now I have to find my friends' phone numbers. Is this targeted to people in developing countries who use apps like WhatsApp? Those people don't have fast enough mobile internet to make video calling work.

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

#29

Post by sidcool »

chetanahuja wrote: post #21
sidcool wrote: post #18

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.

"The only difference seems that Duo works with phone numbers, not Google Accounts" Which is a huuuuuge difference. This is the same factor that made whatsapp so popular on the smartphone compared to all other other chat apps that were popular at the time (including google talk) but where each system was using a different account creation/login flow on that tiny screen, Whatsapp came along and had the brilliant insigh…

Yes, being tied to Google account does seem limiting, after all there are more phone numbers than Google Accounts. I have a gut feeling that one of Allo and Duo will be a success.

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

#30

Post by delta1 »

gruez wrote: post #24
helloworld wrote: post #12

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 call…

1. build an algorithm to detect (using open cv?) and adjust eye position so they look correct to the viewer 2. patent it and license it to apple/google/microsoft 3. ??? 4. profit

    > build an algorithm 
    > adjust eye position
yes, those are the hard parts
Post reply on HN