Google Duo Glitch Results in Users Around the World Receiving Ads From the Indian Cricket Team

The Cricket World Cup is happening right now, and even if you don’t watch cricket or have no idea about what the game actually is, you might have received a random call on Google Duo.

Android Police is reporting that the company started sending an add to Duo users around the world, thanking them for cheering for the…Indian cricket team. The ad works like a regular call — so you essentially get a random call from the Indian team, and it thanks you for supporting the team.

The ad was obviously only meant for users in India, but a glitch resulted in users around the world, including users from the US, Canada, Japan, Mexico, and New Zealand receiving the ad. What makes it worse is that reports state that users in India didn’t even get the message. A Google employee wrote:

This evening a video message was accidentally sent by Google to some Duo users. This was not an ad —   it was a message that users in India were intended to receive as a thank you if they chose to participate in an upcoming Duo promotion. We are sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

Google has obviously messed up here, and it’s pretty weird that the company would be randomly making automated calls to users to promote things like this. I guess it would be a nice gesture if you actually support the Indian cricket team, but the whole thing is very spammy.

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Conversation 8 comments

  • glassman1234

    30 May, 2019 - 10:44 am

    <p>Wondering if this is Google's way of contributing to the robo-call epidemic! Maybie it's their new monetization strategy. s/</p>

    • jedwards87

      30 May, 2019 - 11:28 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#431633">In reply to Glassman1234:</a></em></blockquote><p>lol. We should report them as spammers.</p>

    • dontbe evil

      30 May, 2019 - 11:47 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#431633">In reply to Glassman1234:</a></em></blockquote><p>LOL … that's just the famous google quality</p>

      • nicholas_kathrein

        Premium Member
        30 May, 2019 - 12:37 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#431657">In reply to dontbe_evil:</a></em></blockquote><p>If it's the famous google quality I'd have to say it's great. I got the message and the video and sound quality looked as good as 4k. </p>

        • dontbe evil

          31 May, 2019 - 9:07 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#431679">In reply to Nicholas_Kathrein:</a></em></blockquote><p>you really wanted to receive that message right</p>

  • dcdevito

    30 May, 2019 - 11:06 am

    <p>Probably the most Activity Duo has ever seen. </p>

    • ivarh

      Premium Member
      01 June, 2019 - 9:03 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#431646">In reply to dcdevito:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yes with all the people actually using duo not many would have received this call. These days its all about messenger, iMessage and Skype. Duo is only the latest apparent failure in googles long line of attempts of messenger apps…</p>

  • nicholas_kathrein

    Premium Member
    30 May, 2019 - 12:36 pm

    <p>I got it. I thought it was kind of cool. The message was only about 8 or 10 seconds. </p>

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