I'm surprised Google Duo hasn't become more popular. It's a great cross-platform video chat app. I especially like the feature where you can see the other party before you answer their call. I have taken calls because of that feature that I otherwise wouldn't have. It's better than FaceTime because it works on Android. It's better than Skype and Google Hangouts because your cellphone number is your identity; you don'…
I was waiting for Duo and didn't even know it launched. Maybe more marketing is required.
Looks like this is an attempt to do the same thing that iMessage has done for iPhone. If Apple released iMessage for Android it would probably lay waste to most other messaging services. People will pay to get upgraded to the blue bubble.
I wonder how many users will come to depend on it before they shut it down.
I give it 2 years. Maybe only 18 months. I don't even know how many different (and confusing!) chat applications Google has launched already. Seems like their engineers, when they get bored, write a chat app.
Next time I see someone mention how great their monolithic repository is I'll ask how many chat applications you have to checkout before you can code at google.
I'm surprised Google Duo hasn't become more popular. It's a great cross-platform video chat app. I especially like the feature where you can see the other party before you answer their call. I have taken calls because of that feature that I otherwise wouldn't have. It's better than FaceTime because it works on Android. It's better than Skype and Google Hangouts because your cellphone number is your identity; you don'…
I'll use everything Google, but Duo has been the most stupid video chat app I've ever used. That's because in countries where the common household internet is still not that fast, it 'aggressively' pauses (completely removes) the video for long intervals in every few minutes citing slow connection. That's a frustrating experience. I generally get around 10-12 Mbps speed (which is on the higher side in India), and my family in another city have a 4 Mbps connection - it still pauses the video regularly when we talk - and eventually we switch to skype because it at least shows something, even if pixelated. I'm as disappointed by this 'feature' as excited I was before trying Duo.
If I'm bound to switch to something and bring friends to it, I'll rather do it with Wire[1], without any Google surveillance and data mining for "ad experience". It has a desktop client (electron based though) and isn't limited to 1 device. Not to mention E2E encryption ALL the time. [1] https://wire.com/
How does this company plan to make money from this? I tried to browse through all the pages and I am not seeing it.
They're VC backed and plan a premium subscription sometime in the future. All of the current features will stay free. I think I've read it on their medium comment section or it's in the FAQ.
How did Google get Apple to approve this app for the App Store? It has fallback to SMS functionality[1], but SMS apps are rejected from the Apple App store [2]. [1] https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2016/09/google-allo-smarter-... [2] https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/
Are you referring to this bit?
> Apps that enable anonymous or prank phone calls or SMS/MMS messaging will be rejected.
I read that as anonymous or prank SMS/MMS, not just any SMS/MMS.
I'm surprised Google Duo hasn't become more popular. It's a great cross-platform video chat app. I especially like the feature where you can see the other party before you answer their call. I have taken calls because of that feature that I otherwise wouldn't have. It's better than FaceTime because it works on Android. It's better than Skype and Google Hangouts because your cellphone number is your identity; you don'…
It would be cool if you could see anybody who's calling you before you answer. It would be a lot easier to see if it's a call you should take or not.