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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

#341

Post by wutbrodo »

gst wrote: post #91
wutbrodo wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea I think the US is definitely an outlier there; Out of the couple dozen countries I've visited recently outside of the US, Whatsapp seems like hands-down the most popular messaging app (whereas in the US, almost no one I know uses it unless they're in frequent contact with a non-trivial number of foreigners).

A major difference is that in the US text messages and MMS are usually free, so there's not a lot of pressure to move to a different communication medium. In lots of other countries you pay several cents for each individual text message and MMS cost several tens of cents. And this is for domestic messages. With international messages (which you often use because you're country is likely to be much smaller than the US…

> A major difference is that in the US text messages and MMS are usually free, so there's not a lot of pressure to move to a different communication medium.

I'm not sure that's true. At least in my sample, there are quite a few people who explicitly ask you to use some chat app instead of texting them, because they don't pay for unlimited texting.

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

#342

Post by fzzzy »

VikingCoder wrote: post #253
Senji wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

And there's hangouts.google.com if you just want to hit it on a web page...

How did I never know about this. How long has it existed?

Google is terrible at marketing what they have.

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

#343

Post by wutbrodo »

bane wrote: post #223
wutbrodo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This is an important point and echoes my experience as well. After shuffling around all the Google chat apps, almost my entire network is now just using Facebook. Great job Google.

Exactly. Any other company would kill to have the massive amount of chances they had to be _the_ communications network. Most of the current winners (WhatsApp, snapchat, Facebook) probably could've done it with a fraction of the opportunities Google had. But instead we got literally a decade of them making seemingly arbitrary choices about their messaging products to the point that my prior has made a 180 degree turn: a messaging product coming out of Google is to be avoided like the plague, not preferred.

My usual bias is towards giving companies a pretty huge benefit of the doubt, since these problems are usually very difficult to get right. There's just so, so much data here (from inside and outside the company) to suggest that this was actually pure incompetence.

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

#344

Post by wutbrodo »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #215
wutbrodo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

My analysis is far more cynical. People (especially product managers and designers) don't get promoted at big software companies for incrementally and carefully improving on some existing thing. Novelty and churn pays off in the internal promo economy of a large company. Steady at the oars does not.

Oh absolutely. Like I said, I worked at Google, and I certainly don't think all the product people I knew were personally incompetent.

I was using the term more generally to refer to "the way Google runs product and marketing (including the incentive structure)". Though part of this does bleed over into engineering: One of the reasons I quit the company was because promotion had become so far removed from quality of work that I was starting to feel compelled to spend too much of my time thinking about what the promotion rubric might think of my work vs what was actually good for the project.

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

#345

Post by untog »

vthallam wrote: post #305
untog wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Once all of android users get this pre installed And how far in the future will that be? Will Samsung install it on their phones? I'm sure Duo isn't bad, but I'm not going to be able to convince my friends to sign up for it when Facebook Messenger already exists.

Not very long i guess based on the comments from Sundar/VP of communications at Google's comments. They say they have a great plan for user acquisition. This is a new ground up video app and so the performance is better compared to other apps(I tested it, its definitely better than hangouts/messenger/skype, but probably same as facetime quality).

> They say they have a great plan for user acquisition.

Do they share speechwriters with Donald Trump?

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

#346

Post by spacemanmatt »

sangnoir wrote: post #167
spacemanmatt wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really, they need a camera a bit above center of the screen.

> Really, they need a camera a bit above center of the screen Somehow I don't see a phone that has a camera hole in the middle of the screen selling too well. If the camera is put in the bazel, then it replaces looking up/down with looking slightly to the side.

They'd have to solve the "hole in the screen" problem the "camera a bit above center" thing creates. You're not wrong.

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

#347

Post by ktta »

csydas wrote: post #108
wutbrodo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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…

>Hangouts on Desktop though is horrible

Can you please elaborate on why you think so? I feel the exact opposite I guess. Maybe it is because it was horrible before and I', using a newer version?

It is one of the most unobtrusive and great apps I've used. It sits in the corner of my screen[0] and I have no problems at all even when I'm chatting (texting too! Google Voice!) with someone[1].

[0]:https://imgur.com/a/szw0C [1]:https://imgur.com/a/g0VsZ

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

#348

Post by untog »

exclusiv wrote: post #326
untog wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this requires you and all your friends to sign up to yet another system, with yet another account. "Try this app, at has some features that may or may not make it into Hangouts" is not a great sell for my friends.

True, but with Android's market share, it's pretty compelling to be able to do a "FaceTime" with anyone. That's the larger opportunity. Many people have iPhones because of FaceTime. If Google can show that you can Duo anyone and it works as well, then they may switch, perhaps even to their very own Nexus devices. I'm not sure I personally like this app because I'm on Android and I used to have an excuse to not FaceTi…

> True, but with Android's market share, it's pretty compelling to be able to do a "FaceTime" with anyone. That's the larger opportunity.

Assuming it ends up on all Android phones. Which is a big assumption.

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

#349

Post by mderazon »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #55
wutbrodo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Also, Google Search and Gmail were REALLY GOOD back when Google made really good products, and they both seem to be treated as sacred there. Neither has received truly radical changes to fit with Google's new and often transient business focuses. Had Google made the mistake of replacing Gmail with Inbox, Gmail would've gone the way of everything else Google's done lately. But it seems like someone rightfully has ensu…

Inbox is actually great but it's definitely not a replacement for Gmail. It's a very different concept IMO

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

#350

Post by vthallam »

untog wrote: post #345
vthallam wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not very long i guess based on the comments from Sundar/VP of communications at Google's comments. They say they have a great plan for user acquisition. This is a new ground up video app and so the performance is better compared to other apps(I tested it, its definitely better than hangouts/messenger/skype, but probably same as facetime quality).

> They say they have a great plan for user acquisition. Do they share speechwriters with Donald Trump?

Haha! I understand the comment, but what i want to infer with that statement is that they are very serious about this app and not like other apps(Inbox/G-board/Spaces) which they launched and tested. Allo & Duo has been launched in the I/O and you can figure the importance from it.
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