Zoom in / Someday Google’s message list will look like this (assuming Google can stop launching competing products).
Ron Amadeo
The long-running merger of Google Duo and Google Meet is actually happening. Google officially confirmed the move on Wednesday, explaining in a blog post that the goal is to create a “single video communication service” and that the Duo brand will withdraw in favor of Google Meet.
With the Google Duo brand dying, it looks like the Duo code base will live on as the basis for the new Google Meet. Google says that “Duo’s existing video calling features are here to stay” and that “in the coming weeks we’re adding all of Google Meet’s features to the Duo app, so users can easily schedule a video meeting at a time that works for everyone.” or continue to use video calls to contact an individual or group immediately. Later this year, we will be renaming the Google Meet Duo app, our only Google Video Communications service available to everyone for free.
The move comes after Google merged its communications teams under Google Workspace Vice President and GM Javier Soltero (author of the Google blog post) in 2020. Google has not clarified which products are merging, but Must means that Google Hangouts, Google Meet, Google Chat, Google Messages, Google Duo and Google Voice will live under one roof.
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Here’s a brief summary of Google’s long history of communications apps: Google Duo launched in 2016 as a standalone video chat app with an “accompanying” messaging app called “Google Allo.” Google had just failed in its attempt to buy WhatsApp two years earlier (Facebook had made the $ 22 billion acquisition instead), so it launched its photocopiers for Google Allo, which was a clone of WhatsApp. It uses SMS-based phone identification instead of a Google account and was limited to one device at a time, following the very different way Google works from WhatsApp.
Launching two communication applications at the same time seemed strange, but the idea was that Google could offer the Duo as a companion to WhatsApp as well as Allo. A company is usually expected to include video chat capabilities in its new messaging app, such as Hangouts or Facebook Messenger or (possibly) WhatsApp. However, Google probably knew that it could not compete with WhatsApp’s jaggedout in chat, so a standalone video application was made with a Whatsapp clone to go with it. WhatsApp users can stay in WhatsApp for chat, but can add this Duo app to their arsenal.
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