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Google Duo — One-to-one video calling. Google's FaceTime competitor.
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@gabriel__lewis Its a clean, mobile-first, mobile-only app. It's obvious how much Google prioritized and optimized for mobile. That's a good thing. But, their strategy in social and comms has always been complex for mainstream users to navigate. I wish they had done what FB did with Insta stories. Why build a standalone competitive app when you can rebrand and redesign an existing app (ie. Hangouts)? Reliance on phone numbers for contacts is a smart hook but I'm surprised they didn't make it a default, pre-installed app in Android for distribution and adoption. It feels to me that this is not only a move to have Apple users use Google stuff on iPhones but also giving Android users one less reason to jump ships. In this regard, it's thinking is similar to Insta/FB. If you can't win back folks, just prevent users you have from jumping ships.
@monst3rtruck @gabriel__lewis you have to thing longterm. This is not for the early adopters who move from shiny object to shiny object. It's for the masses. The majority of whom are Android users outside of USA. Inside it's 50/50
@sarthakgh @gabriel__lewis Agree! First q I had was, how is this different from Hangouts?? I was a huge advocate for the Google Nexus 5 for years (before I switched to iPhone) but this isn't convincing to me.
@delwilliams @monst3rtruck @gabriel__lewis Very well said re: for the masses versus the Product Hunt crowd.
More about the product here: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/.... It's Googe's version of FaceTime that also works on Android.
They just announced the death of Hangouts On Air. Would you really want to start using yet another product Google will eventually kill off?
@scottwyden That is exactly my thought. You never know whether to use a Google offering or not because they sunset so many of them after people get committed to using them.
The news hit a bit late for a typical tech release (9pm PT). Maybe someone broke an embargo. The site isn't online yet but likely very soon.
In the meantime, @joshconstine's take on the app.
I don't get what the big deal is. The app itself is nothing to write home about. Just video chat with barely any interface. Almost feels like they released it before it was finished. There are literally hundreds of other apps that have done this for years, including Google Hangouts. And it doesn't really make sense to call it a FaceTime competitor. FaceTime is integrated into iOS. Maybe this is integrated into Android but it certainly isn't integrated into iOS.
Are people just upvoting this because it's Google?
Kinda funny that I've seen all the articles that say Duo has been released but when I go to the play store to download it, just says to register to be notified when it is ready to download link.
This is the kind of product strategy that I find so confusing.
All this cash, energy and time to compete with an app that hasn't got a lot of usage market share (Facetime) by doing practically the same thing. AI? Mmkay..
It's not competing (directly) with WhatsApp or the other big messengers and it's separated from another similar (Allo), which is also in the same position, under the same rationale.
Anyway, a company can dream about instant mass conversion, specially when they have pockets as deep as Google's.
All I see now is that.. a dream.
I see a lot of people commenting on the death of hangouts/hangouts on air but if you look at it Google is trying to attack the market in two out of three areas, first is hangouts which they want to position to be an enterprise platform for companies. Second is Allo and Duo which is targeted at individuals. The third market would then be basic messaging and communication (SMS/MMS/phone calls) which seems to me that they want to leave to carriers as they have let Google Voice fade away and integrated it with Google Fi. Seems like Google doesn't want to try and tackle those three prongs all with one platform prevent two platforms, and that makes sense and seems like a great idea.
I give this app a year max before Google cans it. It is such a first world problem (most markets really need free texting, like Whatsapp or Messenger) and it's not really solving anything new (unlike Periscope). But I guess that's what Google does best, try many things and see what sticks.
@rfreling I disagree. People use FaceTime quite a bit. There are people who buy an iPhone just for that feature. With Duo available on both platforms, it solves a problem.
Anyone else think it's strange that Duo only connects to your phone number (no option to link your gmail or google apps account)? I guess they truly see this as smartphone-to-smartphone, not computer-to-smartphone or tablet-to-smartphone. Seems like a weird shift from the ecosystem.
Still not live for me in the US or Canada app stores. Might have jumped the gun a bit on this one...hopefully will be up soon.
The 'unique' knock-knock' function finds its inspiration in the brilliant Appear.in that already has that. Nice function
Wait, I thought google hangout was it.. so next is Google's snap chat competitor or does that exist already?
Finally. Some cross-platform Facetime competition. I'm game, but I accidentally set Hangouts as my default INVITE app and can't figure out how to change it. Gah! Anyone?
@ourielohayon Because they wanted to make it more simple and don't want to confuse people with Hangout branding. I think this is a good move
@mohitify @ourielohayon "and don't want to confuse people" Because adding another application to do the same thing is not confusing...
Damn! Just got it.
That's a straightforward interface! No bs, not one bit.
Would be expecting this ~10Mb app to be about 30Mb by v2.
Anyone else notice the cool scroll transition from top to bottom of the webpage? iphone merging into android phone. i wonder if there was a design innuendo behind it!
Rollout has just started. Look for it to become available in Play/App Store for all US users Tuesday. Worldwide soon after.
Imgur Melee