You can use it to make a one-to-one call, start a group video call for a meeting, or leave someone a video message.

Other calls though were much better, so we will chalk that first time to a bug or something.Google Duo is a high-quality video-calling app. The receiver had a TV on but even then, TV has never interfered with our other video calls like on Skype, Hangouts and Viber. The audio was crisp apart from some unexplained screeching sound accompanying it.

The video got paused when the connection deteriorated but soon came back on. The video feed was rather good, given the circumstances. Duo has the option to choose either the front or the back camera. Our first-ever video call was a mixed bag of sentiments. We didn’t encounter anywhere in the app it said so.

Interest though, we only have Google’s word for it. The settings are too few to warrant a bit of tweaking. Google Duo is end-to-end encrypted too which is a welcome feature any day. What’s attractive about Duo is the simplicity Google has in mind. When you toggle Knock Knock off, you won’t see callers and they won’t see you either when you call them. This only works if they have you in their contacts. With Knock Knock, the person you are calling sees you even before they pick the call. You can always block whoever you don’t want to talk with.ĭuo’s Knock Knock feature was first showcased at the Google I/O event. Duo requires you verify your number so that it can populate your contact list. None of current apps started out with all these things. Also lacking is a desktop client, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Duo in still in its infancy that we will forgive the absence certain obvious features such as audio-only and group calls. Apart from spaces which is some new species altogether, all of Googles’ apps can be bundled into one app and everyone goes home happy.īut enough of that. Google now has 5 chat apps: Hangouts, Messenger, Spaces, Allo and Duo. Set against a backdrop of an abysmal run with Google Plus which failed to gain traction as Facebook did, Google has not stopped there.

Duo marks the umpteenth time Google attempts at carving a slice of chat market for itself.

Duo video chat app download