Google's path makes for a smoother transition for those 5 billion installs, while the 100 million will have to switch manually. As a default Android app, Google Duo has more than 5 billion downloads on the Play Store, while Meet only has 100 million. The install base is probably also a factor here. That efficient video chat system will be the basis for the new combined app, with Google building Meet's meeting link functionality into Duo and rebranding it. Google Meet was still locked behind a paywall during the initial months of the work-from-home era, and while it eventually became as easy to use as Zoom, it was after Zoom became a household name.Īllo and Duo were originally focused on India, which led Duo to build a one-to-one video chat system that used little bandwidth and worked well on unstable connections. Google Meet was technically created in 2017 as a group business video chat application called "Google Hangouts Meet," but it really became a major project after Zoom's growth exploded in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Meet and Duo video services were both built as reactions to Google's far more stable communication competition. That means there are now two apps called "Google Meet." Google has a help article detailing this extremely confusing situation, calling the two Meet apps "Google Meet (original): The updated Meet app" and "Google Meet: The updated Duo app." The "Google Meet (original)" app will someday be put out to pasture it's just sticking around while Google rebuilds the meeting functionality on top of Google Duo. So Google Duo is being rebranded to Google Meet, and the existing Google Meet app is sticking around for a bit. Google's various rebrandings are all on a rollout, so they'll arrive at different times for different people, but Google says the complete rebrand should finish for everyone by September. According to Google's PR email (no links, sorry), people will begin seeing Duo's app and website branding swap over to Google Meet this week. Google announced the merger in June, with the plan to keep the Google Meet brand name while merging the best of both code bases into the Google Duo app. Conversation history, contacts, and messages remain.Google is officially kicking off the merger of its two video chat apps, Google Meet and Google Duo. Google Duo users are also reassured that, "video calling capabilities are still available in the updated Duo app on mobile devices at no cost. Users only need to be signed in with a Google account in order to try the new version of Meet and enjoy all its features, as accounts set up with only a phone number won't be able to use meetings.Īll Duo user conversation history, contacts, and messages will continue to be saved in the app, Google added, and there will be no new app to download or extra costs to pay. The Google Duo app listing still remains on the Play Store and iOS App Store for now, so users can download and install in the usual fashion. The Google Duo web app also remains with its original branding for now, but Google has also said this will redirect to the Google Meet page within the next few weeks.įor those users that have already updated (including TechRadar Pro) this has led to a strange in-between setting where we now have two apps, both entitled "Google Meet (originally Duo)" on our devices - something the company will hopefully amend soon. > Google Meet just fixed one of the worst problems with video conferencing Google Meet aims to tear down the language barrier
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