Google Duo Improvements Could Lure Many To Platform

Contrary to popular belief, WhatsApp isn’t the only messaging client that can be used to stay in touch with friends and family during the COVID-19 lockdown. Admittedly, it is the most versatile of the lot, allowing users to message, call or video chat with anyone in their contact list.

However, Google believes that the updates to its video chatting app Duo, might be to the liking of those who aren’t too happy with WhatsApp’s choppy video quality. And that’s a fair assumption because each week, over 10 million people are signing up for Duo, and the duration of calls being made on the platform, have increased ten-fold.

So far, the search giant has made four major improvements to Duo that should make the lockdown a little more tolerable. These features are:

#1 – More Secure And Reliable Calls
Remember the Zoom fiasco, in which its user data was left compromised? Well, Google says that it understands that privacy and high quality calls are of paramount importance to users. And as such, it uses end-to-end to ensure your chats are kept private and optimizes data handling to improve call quality.

Artificial intelligence is also being used to improve audio quality, but in the coming weeks, the company will introduce a new video codec tech to further improve video call quality even with very low internet speeds.

#2 – Capture The Moment
When on a video call, users can now take a snapshot to capture the moment. This is especially useful to those who want to share a special moment over a video chat session. This function can be accessed on smartphones, tablets and Chromebooks.

#3 – Invite More People
Google has increased the maximum number of participants on a single video chat. Now, the size of the group chat has increased from 8 to 12. But in the coming weeks, that number is said to increase further, which may lure more business users to the platform.

#4 – Send Personalized Messages
Duo has the ability to send personalized video and voice messages instead of making actual calls. Now, users can send messages by using AR effects, taking the idea of a personalized message a step further. In the near future, users will have the option to automatically save their messages in Duo instead of having them expire after 24 hours.