The battle between tech giants like Google and Apple is always good for the consumers. While Apple uses its exclusivity feature well, Google’s forte is flexibility. Google, with an aim to get rid of ‘complexity out of video calling’ launched its video calling app, Google Duo for Android and iOS users, to compete with apps like FaceTime, Skype, and others. Google’s Duo, was first announced at its I/O developer conference in May 2016. The new video app is freely downloadable from Google’s Play store and App Store in Apple. The Duo app can be accessed by the click of one button which loads the contact list, from where the user can select whom to call. What seperates Google’s Duo from other apps is its simple interface. Users will be able to type for a contact to do a video-call. With just a mobile number to login instead of using a Google account as used for Hangouts, this is a refreshing change. This feature will bring in more first-time Android users from India to try video-calling.
With a new feature called ‘Knock Knock’, Duo streams the video of the recipient whenever the call is placed. This means the users can make faces and gestures when calling someone and they can see that before picking the call. Yet, this feature is optional and can be switched off. But in FaceTime, one can call directly through the contact list or the app itself while the video can not be seen unless the recipient picks up. According to reports by people who have used the Duo app, when used on all ranges of network connections the video calls felt clearer and crispier on Duo than FaceTime or Skype. But this is too soon to talk about that as Duo is being used by less number of people and the traffic is quite uncongested. So one wil have to wait for reviews regarding the video quality when more and more join in.
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Duo is a little different for Android users and iPhone counterparts as well. The Knock Knock video feature on the home screen of Android smartphones by default, while on Apple devices there is a notification on the screen top and the user needs to open the Duo app to see the Knock Knock feature. Other features are the same. A very interesting feature in Duo is that, for video calls while moving, it can switch between WiFi and cellphone data automatically and the call will not drop. Reportedly, when compared to video calls over Facebook’s Messenger and Microsoft’s Skype, Duo scored pretty big.
WATCH: Why you should use Google Duo for video calling
In Facebook’s Messenger app, the video-calling feature is congested and hard to find which makes it not so intuitive. While on Skype, the video-calling feature is in the corner of a message box which makes it cluttered as well, along with the fact that users have to manually add contacts before calling. FaceTime is the only competition for Duo as the features are almost the sameand there are not many reasons why iPhone users will shift from the former app unless they have to call Android users. But even if they do, users will prefer Duo over other apps available on Android because of its single-button approach and added features.
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In a statement, Google had said, “We have built Duo to be fast and reliable so that video calls connect quickly and work well even on slower networks. Call quality adjusts to changing network conditions to keep you connected when bandwidth is limited, Duo will gracefully reduce the resolution to keep the call going smoothly.
