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

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

#181

Post by ikeboy »

izacus wrote: post #113
csydas wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a pretty chronic Google problem that I noticed both from the inside and outside: their engineering and design talent are incredible, but the people responsible for the product and marketing side are evidently really, really bad at what they do. See, I don't even think it's marketing, it's Google not understanding what they already have and engineering a solution without a problem. Hangouts as an app on mobi…

Oh yes, Googles insistence to the horrible Chrome plugin (and ONLY chrome plugin, you're SoL if you want to use any other browser) instead of a slim desktop app like iMessage/Telegram is pretty much the reason why I've abandoned Hangouts.

I don't use a chrome plugin, hangouts works great inside gmail which I always keep open, or from https://hangouts.google.com/.

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

#182

Post by ergo14 »

thomasahle wrote: post #85
dingo_bat wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Hangouts has always worked a lot better for me than Skype and Facebook video chat. Both on Android and desktop.

Same here, hangouts is one of best working solutions for me and my family on variety of devices and operating systems.

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

#183

Post by JustSomeNobody »

soufron wrote: post #123

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.

Don't forget the need for yet more proprietary protocols.

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

#184

Post by crottypeter »

emsy wrote: post #74
ende wrote: post #5

Have they announced when it will be discontinued?

A bit cynical but that was my initial thought as well. It's sad because FaceTime exists for so long and is so easy to use and I'd really like to have an app that I can use with both of my parents (one Android, one iOS). But I see Google failing with this already.

Isn't hangouts on iOS & android?

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

#186

Post by tdkl »

wutbrodo wrote: post #42
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.

Google's communications strategy has been bafflingly dumb for years and years now. Almost my ENTIRE social network (that was on chat; this was before every part of society was "on the Internet") used to be on Gchat. That's a massive network-effects advantage that they had ages before anyone else did (including Facebook, but Facebook's network did surpass them with the ability to find someone by their face). Almost a…

Their "Google groupthink ethos bubble" has become their biggest enemy. This comes apparent specially in social products and desktop client support.

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

#187

Post by kartoffelmos »

jalami wrote: post #51

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.co…

vector.im looks cool, thanks for that :) Will be following it.

But man, that is one hard-to-use (browser) client.

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

#188

Post by Senji »

izacus wrote: post #113
csydas wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a pretty chronic Google problem that I noticed both from the inside and outside: their engineering and design talent are incredible, but the people responsible for the product and marketing side are evidently really, really bad at what they do. See, I don't even think it's marketing, it's Google not understanding what they already have and engineering a solution without a problem. Hangouts as an app on mobi…

Oh yes, Googles insistence to the horrible Chrome plugin (and ONLY chrome plugin, you're SoL if you want to use any other browser) instead of a slim desktop app like iMessage/Telegram is pretty much the reason why I've abandoned Hangouts.

You're aware Hangouts has a firefox plugin too right?

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

#189

Post by dzmien »

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.

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

#190

Post by nxc18 »

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.
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