Google’s lineup of communication apps is confusing and not as clear as options from Facebook, Microsoft, or Zoom. There is Google Hangouts, Google Meet, and Google Duo… all three provide video communication. While Google is rumoured to be killing off Hangouts soon, the company is now merging Google Meet and Google Duo into a single product.
It makes loads of sense to combine these two services into a single app. Even so, the actual integration needs some explaining. Google says Meet features will become available in Duo, but then nearer the end of the year, the Duo app will be rebranded as Google Meet.
Why not the other way around if it is going to be called Google Meet? That’s unclear, but it is probably because it is easier to migrate Meet features to Duo and rebrand the app than migrate Duo features into Meet.
Either way, the result will be a single video communication application known as Google Meet.
Features
According to Google, the new app will be free and the migration will be complete by the end of this month. The following features will be available in Google Duo until it becomes Google Meet later in the year:
- “Schedule meetings so everyone can join at a time that’s convenient for them
- In-meeting chat for deeper engagement
- Live share content to enable interaction with all participants on the call
- Get real-time closed captions to better support accessibility and boost participation Increase size of video calls from a current limit of 32 to 100 participants
- Integrate with other tools, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Assistant, Messages and more”
The new Meet application will be available across platforms, while also run on the web. As well as being a free app, it will also be baked into the Google Workspace subscription service.
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