Google today confirmed that the company is combining Duo and Meet into a single platform. Google will slowly start adding all the Meet features into Duo. Then Duo will be renamed to Google Meet to become a single communication platform. Existing Duo features will still be there. Your conversation history, contacts, and messages will remain saved in the app.
Even under the new name, Duo will retain all the existing video calling features. The company is also adding new features including customizable virtual backgrounds, scheduling of meetings, in-meeting chat, live sharing of content, and video calls with up to 100 people. The new app will also have integration with other Google tools like Gmail, Calendar, Assistant, and Messages.
With the new app, Google wants to give a single platform for personal video calls and meetings. Google Meet was initially launched for professionals but the company made it available to everyone in 2020.
Google is really confused about its video calling app. Initially, we had Google Talks which was replaced by Hangouts. Hangouts was doing really well but the company replaced it with Meet and launched two different apps including Duo and Allo. At the time when all the companies were making a single platform for multiple needs, Google released two different apps for video calls and text messaging. Meet was for professionals and Duo was basically a rival to FaceTime. Not many people moved to Duo and Google lost a lot of users to WhatsApp.
It is worth noting that Meet in Gmail will still be the same and will not be affected by all these changes.
