@gabriel__lewis Its a clean, mobile-first, mobile-only app. It's obvious how much Google prioritized and optimized for mobile. That's a good thing. But, their strategy in social and comms has always been complex for mainstream users to navigate. I wish they had done what FB did with Insta stories. Why build a standalone competitive app when you can rebrand and redesign an existing app (ie. Hangouts)? Reliance on phone numbers for contacts is a smart hook but I'm surprised they didn't make it a default, pre-installed app in Android for distribution and adoption. It feels to me that this is not only a move to have Apple users use Google stuff on iPhones but also giving Android users one less reason to jump ships. In this regard, it's thinking is similar to Insta/FB. If you can't win back folks, just prevent users you have from jumping ships.
@monst3rtruck@gabriel__lewis you have to thing longterm. This is not for the early adopters who move from shiny object to shiny object. It's for the masses. The majority of whom are Android users outside of USA. Inside it's 50/50
@sarthakgh@gabriel__lewis Agree! First q I had was, how is this different from Hangouts?? I was a huge advocate for the Google Nexus 5 for years (before I switched to iPhone) but this isn't convincing to me.
Kinda funny that I've seen all the articles that say Duo has been released but when I go to the play store to download it, just says to register to be notified when it is ready to download link.
The news hit a bit late for a typical tech release (9pm PT). Maybe someone broke an embargo. The site isn't online yet but likely very soon.
In the meantime, @joshconstine's take on the app.
@scottwyden That is exactly my thought. You never know whether to use a Google offering or not because they sunset so many of them after people get committed to using them.
No tablet support nor computer, let's ignore it and hopefully Google will try again. Also only being tied to one device in 2016, heck even FaceTime is better.
I don't get what the big deal is. The app itself is nothing to write home about. Just video chat with barely any interface. Almost feels like they released it before it was finished. There are literally hundreds of other apps that have done this for years, including Google Hangouts. And it doesn't really make sense to call it a FaceTime competitor. FaceTime is integrated into iOS. Maybe this is integrated into Android but it certainly isn't integrated into iOS.
Are people just upvoting this because it's Google?
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I see a lot of people commenting on the death of hangouts/hangouts on air but if you look at it Google is trying to attack the market in two out of three areas, first is hangouts which they want to position to be an enterprise platform for companies. Second is Allo and Duo which is targeted at individuals. The third market would then be basic messaging and communication (SMS/MMS/phone calls) which seems to me that they want to leave to carriers as they have let Google Voice fade away and integrated it with Google Fi. Seems like Google doesn't want to try and tackle those three prongs all with one platform prevent two platforms, and that makes sense and seems like a great idea.
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