FaceTime video chat competitor Google Duo released for iOS, Android
Google on Tuesday released its new chat client Duo, promising high quality video between iOS and Android users with the free download now available on both the iOS App Store and Google Play.
Google Duo was announced in May, and is cross-platform between iOS and Android. No Google account is necessary -- connections are made between users' phone numbers after a one-time SMS verification.
The app provides mitigations by decreasing video quality for varying speeds of connections. Calls made on Duo are end-to-end encrypted.
Setting it apart from FaceTime, The "knock knock" feature in Google Duo shows the call recipient a live stream of who's calling and the surroundings of the caller before the recipient confirms the video chat request.
Initial AppleInsider testing showed an initial period of negotiation between devices, with the video quality oscillating between very good and poor -- but the initial "knock knock" stream was consistently bad and severely pixellated. This negotiation period lasted about 10 seconds after the recipient accepted the call on both 4G and 802.11ac Wi-Fi, with consistent good quality thereafter.
Announced at the same time as Duo in May was Google's Allo chat service. Allo is not yet available.
Google Duo is available now, requires iOS 9 or greater, and occupies 28.2MB of device storage space.
Google Duo was announced in May, and is cross-platform between iOS and Android. No Google account is necessary -- connections are made between users' phone numbers after a one-time SMS verification.
The app provides mitigations by decreasing video quality for varying speeds of connections. Calls made on Duo are end-to-end encrypted.
Setting it apart from FaceTime, The "knock knock" feature in Google Duo shows the call recipient a live stream of who's calling and the surroundings of the caller before the recipient confirms the video chat request.
Initial AppleInsider testing showed an initial period of negotiation between devices, with the video quality oscillating between very good and poor -- but the initial "knock knock" stream was consistently bad and severely pixellated. This negotiation period lasted about 10 seconds after the recipient accepted the call on both 4G and 802.11ac Wi-Fi, with consistent good quality thereafter.
Announced at the same time as Duo in May was Google's Allo chat service. Allo is not yet available.
Google Duo is available now, requires iOS 9 or greater, and occupies 28.2MB of device storage space.
Comments
i have to say, this is where Apple's marketing genius comes into play -- "FaceTime" is a brilliant term that perfectly describes the technology. Even Tango works, or Skype which is a new word that means specifically that.
"Duo"? Let's Duo. I'm gonna Duo you later. Do you want to Duo? We can Duo if you want.
Did no one think through his branding?
FaceTime seems to work quite well when it actually rings, the negotiation speed is much improved in iOS 10. About half the time however the callee's phone doesn't ring, and there's no indication of the failure at all on the calling device, making it pretty much useless unless you pre-negotiate FaceTime over a normal call. Handoff between (Apple) access points is pretty poor too, with the call often dropping when switching.
Other than that I find it's generally very clear and very little lag, and the integration into the phone app is good.
Apple did promise to open the FaceTime API when it was introduced, but no cigar. Unfortunately a communications platform just doesn't work unless it's cross platform, you can't restrict yourself to only calling iOS device owners! iMessage has automatic fallback so not so much of a problem cross platform.
Throw anything at the wall and see what sticks.
An Android the Knock Knock function is integrated on the welcome screen, even if the app itself is not running (that is cool), but on iOS the Knock Knock function only works when the app is active.
EXAMPLE: You get a video chat invite from an unknown number. You've just stepped out of the shower. Dang sure ain't taking that one... until you see it's your wife. Oh, well then that's OK.
Google creepy? Nah!