Knock Knock! Happy third birthday, Google Duo

Three years in the past at this time, Google launched Duo, the video calling app and repair it teased a number of months earlier throughout I/O 2016. Along with Allo, Duo caused a shift in Google’s messaging and communication technique. It spelled the start of the top for Hangouts and the swap to a extra simplistic strategy that did not pan out nicely for Allo. Duo, however, remains to be advancing. It might not have utterly revolutionized video calling, like Google had hoped, however that does not imply it is not a hit.

Since its inception, the concept behind Duo was to shed electronic mail addresses and usernames, and easily mean you can video name any particular person whose quantity you may have. That reliance might have deterred a number of of you from utilizing it and created a number of limitations, however the Duo workforce has slowly knocked them down through the years. The service now has an online consumer and is now not tied to at least one system, making it extra accessible and helpful for individuals with a number of telephones and tablets — together with iPads.

It additionally added audio-only calls, group requires as much as eight individuals, the choice to go away video and audio messages to your contacts, and now has hooks to the Contacts, Phone, and Messages apps. But it isn’t nearly including options, Duo has additionally tried to make its calls extra cell and data-friendly. At launch, the service’s potential to maintain a name going no matter connection power and kind was one of many options that the majority impressed me about it, and it nonetheless does. It’s essentially the most dependable app I’ve used for voice and video calls, and in addition one of many easiest. I barely, if ever, want to assist my dad and mom and in-laws determine one thing out with Duo, which wasn’t the case once we used Skype.

Unlike Allo, Duo has acquired Google’s wider assist nearly since launch. In December of 2016, it changed Hangouts within the Google Apps package deal and have become a compulsory set up (just like the Play Store, YouTube, and Chrome) for any Android system producer. That helps clarify the 1 billion set up quantity that the app has reached on the Play Store. Duo was additionally built-in with Assistant on telephones, Home audio system, and Smart Displays, serving to broaden its usefulness and attain.

But maybe the largest attestation to Duo’s “success,” no matter how loosely you outline that time period, is that it is nonetheless standing, whereas lots of Google’s different communication efforts failed in fewer than three years. Given the corporate’s tendency to close down something that does not work, that is a exceptional feat.

So joyful birthday, Duo! May you retain on defying the chances and dwell to see a fourth candle in your cake and plenty of extra.