Hangouts is on its last breath, so Google is focusing its attention on the other two video chat apps under its wing, Duo and Meet. With the thought of taking on Zoom, which gained immense ground in the market since the beginning of the pandemic, Google is planning to unite the two apps.
The decision comes from the new G Suite chief, Javier Soltero. Soltero was appointed in May to manage all the consumer communication services, which include Duo, Meet, Messages, and Android’s Phone app.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, that caused a huge spike in the use of video chat apps, Google has pushed to make Meet a Zoom competitor. Now, according to 9to5Google, Soltero announced employees that it does not make sense for Duo and Meet to coexist.
The Google Duo app was announced at I/O 2016 and was developed to replace Hangouts. At the same time Allo – Google’s text messaging service – was wiped out, users preferring Duo as a replacement. The app has found great success since and has improved its features basically becoming what FaceTime is to Apple.
The Google Meet app is mainly used for business video calls, having the feature of group video chats and the option to invite people with a link, rather than from the contact list. It’s reported that with the merge, some Duo developers would move onto the Meet developers team, and some will be let go.
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