Neha Patil (Editor)

Google Duo

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Developer(s)
  
Google

Development status
  
Active

Initial release
  
August 16, 2016; 6 months ago (2016-08-16)

Android
  
6.0 / January 10, 2017; 2 months ago (2017-01-10)

iOS
  
6.1 / January 11, 2017; 2 months ago (2017-01-11)

Operating system
  
Android 4.1 or later iOS 9.0 or later

Google Duo is a video chat mobile app developed by Google, available on the Android and iOS operating systems. It was announced at Google I/O on May 18, 2016, and began its worldwide release on August 16, 2016.

Contents

History

Google Duo quickly climbed to the number one free app on Google Play within two days of its initial release, but it fell to the 127th place not long after.

In an email sent to Android phone manufacturers on October 5, 2016, Google announced that, starting December 1, 2016, Google Duo will replace Hangouts within the suite of Google apps Android phone makers must pre-install on devices, with Hangouts instead becoming an optional app for phone makers to pre-install.

Features

Google advertises several features of the app:

  • HD 720p video
  • Optimized for low bandwidth mobile networks. The app optimizes WebRTC and uses QUIC over UDP. Optimisation is further achieved through the degradation of video quality through monitoring network quality.
  • "Knock Knock" – an Android-only feature which shows a live preview of the caller before the recipient picks up, which Google says is to "make calls feel more like an invitation rather than an interruption".
  • End-to-end encryption by default
  • Google Assistant support.
  • Use of phone numbers to allow users to easily call people from their contact list
  • Automatic switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data
  • References

    Google Duo Wikipedia