Google Duo is Merging with Google Meet
- Laurent Giret
- Jun 01, 2022
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11
Google is consolidating its different communication apps, again. Today, the company announced that its Google Duo video-calling app will be updated in the coming weeks and gain all features from Google Meet, the company’s more enterprise-focused video communication app.
To make things a bit more confusing, the Google Duo app will also be rebranded to Google Meet later this year. “Existing video calling features from Duo are here to stay, including the ability to make video calls to friends and family by phone number or email address, use fun filters and effects, send messages, and ask Google Assistant to call using existing devices,” explained Javier Soltero, Vice President and General Manager, Google Workspace.
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In the coming weeks, we are adding #GoogleMeet features to the Duo app, and later this year, we’ll update the Duo app to #GoogleMeet, creating one video experience that's better together ➡️ https://t.co/EZSM6ppHUT pic.twitter.com/n3WGkJuUIv
— Google Workspace (@GoogleWorkspace) June 1, 2022
Google Duo started as a Facetime alternative for Android users, but the app later received support for group calls with up to 32 people, video effects, and more. With the upcoming Google Meet rebranding, the app will gain Meet’s enhanced video calling and meeting features including the ability to schedule meetings with up to 100 participants, real-time closed captions, and integrations with Gmail and other Google Workspace apps.
It will certainly be quite confusing for Google Duo users to discover in the coming weeks that the app has been suddenly rebranded to Google Meet, though they won’t lose their conversation history as part of the update. The original Google Meet app will also continue to work after the Duo app gets rebranded to Google Meet, though users will be offered the option to use the new Meet app.
“We’re committed to making the transition from Duo to Meet as smooth as possible,” Soltero said today. If Google wants to make its upcoming new Meet app a single solution for both video calling and meetings, the company also explained in a separate FAQ that the ability to use Meet in Gmail will remain.