Zoom has skyrocketed itself as the popular choice for video calling platform amid the 'COVID-19' coronavirus pandemic. Others are trailing behind it, including Google.
In a hope to close the gap with Zoom, Google has updated Duo by allowing users to send invite links to others on mobile. This in turn makes it a more viable competitor to Zoom than ever before.
And Google is using the pandemic to boost Duo's offering, to garner users of both businesses and casual users.
Previously, Duo users should enter their phone number or email address. With the update, Duo is having another way for people to join calls.
It should be noted though, that the person who receives the link and wishes to join a call should first have a Google account.
The invite link feature was first announced in May. At the time Google said that:
The feature is meant to be part of a broader feature rollout. But the option didn't go live immediately.
This time, the feature has been activated server-side by Google for most users
To make use of this invite link, Duo users can add more people to a conference by accessing the dedicated invite link feature, once the group call has been created, and have at least invited a person to the call. Once they sent this link another person that that person opened it, it will automatically launch the app on the person's device and drop them into the call.
Initially, the feature only works on mobile, including Android and iOS, meaning anyone clicking the link shared on the web won’t be able to join unless they’re on using a Chromebook that supports the Android version of the app.
Google Duo and Google Meet are pretty similar to each other. While some features overlap, there is one main difference:
Google Duo is more like a person-to-person call, and a more mobile-friendly and consumer-focused app. Google Meet on the other hand, is designed to be a more fully-featured platform meant for businesses, and to better accommodate multiple people.
During the coronavirus pandemic where people are urged to remain indoors and away from public when they can, Google Duo and Google Meet experience a lot more usage, just like almost all video-chatting apps out there.
Besides the array of updates Google announced in May for Duo, Google has also updated the app with the AV1 codec, which improves call quality. Duo also supports up to 12 people on a call.
Google has also improved Meet.
Starting the end of April, Google has made it available for free to users at the end of April in the event users need a more powerful, web-based option for videoconferencing on desktop or a laptop.
Related: https://www.eyerys.com/articles/news/how-google-meet-and-google-duo-confront-almighty-zoom