Google Duo and Meet merger explained!

almost two years ago back in august of 2020 we reported that google was planning to replace duo with its conference calling option meet that development has now finally been made official today and we'll see the app and the vast majority of android users the app that they have installed on their devices get renamed to google me later this year what does this mean for you and will we see any major changes well this is the duo meet merger explained thanks for watching 95 google here on youtube remember to thumbs up hit subscribe and then tap the bell icon to be among the first to watch our upcoming videos just a bit of background before we really get into the meat of this if you asked a user of free google services in the early to mid 2010s how to call somebody over video they probably say hangouts in 2016 though this answer changed to google duo for better or worse a very low lightweight and focused app that by all accounts people really do like the answer to the question though started to shift again two years ago as work from home protocols saw google continuously upgrade the more business and education focused meet which dates back to 2017. new features that leverage the company's ai pro s have been added to me over time but the biggest change was how closely integrated meet has become with gmail next to search and youtube gmail is likely google's most important and most used consumer-facing offering the email app did actually start surfacing meat for all users in 2020 and not just enterprise customers giving its prominence meat has become a stronger contender to the service a regular google account holder would think to use but the existence of duo as a potential rival or a potential rival video calling option likely confuses the nonverse tech user out there today though the company is now officially answering that question itself meat is set to be google's one connected solution for video calling and this move might just make this unified meet more than the sum of its individual parts to help that google is initiating this transition from duo to me or merger by first updating the duo app on android and ios with all existing google me features this includes the ability to do things like customize virtual backgrounds in calls and meetings or shed your meetings so everyone can join at a time that's convenient to them also use things like in meeting chat for deeper engagement with fellow participants you're also able to live share content to enable interaction with all of the participants on a call and you can get real-time closed captions to better support accessibility and hopefully therefore boost participation within discussions in calls themselves you'll also be able to increase the size of video calls from a current limit of 32 to 100 participants and of course there will be further integration with other tools including gmail google calendar assistant messages and more over time too if you are worried google is quick to point out though that any existing video calling features from duo that you love and use on a daily basis are here to stay you'll still be able to make video calls to friends and family by phone number or even email address and that latter capability of making one-to-one calls without needing to first drop a link is already possible today in google chat but video calling somebody's number is very much a duo feature that remains important given that services integration with various phone dialer apps like on the pixel for instance on top of that you'll still be able to ask the google assistant to call using existing devices the other important thing that google notes with regard to this merger is that you won't have to download a new app as all conversation history contacts and messages will continue to be saved to your google account google very much wants to convert its existing user base especially since duo has seen over 5 billion downloads on android compared to 100 million plus for the standalone google me client the addition of all of these new features comes with an upgraded home screen that's basically duo's existing call history view which is a popular way people will start calls on mobile on other devices out there however you might see a new scheduled meeting section appear first in that list and when tapping the new call floating action button in the bottom right corner you now have meets options to start a new meeting and schedule in google calendar meet though as it is today has restrictions on the length of group video calls if you're not an actual workspace paying customer users of the new duo and me app will most likely not encounter them if they use the mobile app however there will be 60 minute limitations for scheduled meetings with three or more participants depending on where that call has originated from the first phase of sorts will take place in the coming weeks and will be closely monitored by google so that users aren't left behind or see any quality degradation due to this merger during this entire period the ability to make calls with your preferred app regardless of what that other person is using to call them on will remain in place so there's going to be no worries about incompatibility or not being able to contact your friends and family using your preferred service after that initial rollout a new meet app will be available when launching this you'll be guided to a new version of the application to download and once you have migrated you'll be able to delete the original meet app from your device with no effect on the experience once that is complete though the company will rename the duo app to google me later this year at least google's explanation is that this will result in a single video communication service across google that is available to everyone at no additional cost google's desire to have one service for video sees it returned to the hangouts era desire for one consolidated app initially though this merger might seem off-putting for sacrificing an app as beloved as a duo in favor of one all-encompassing solution which appears to be me but we think that there is definitely a case for being optimistic about this merger going smoothly the silver lining comes from how complex talking to people over video and audio really actually is nowadays and how that difficulty will only likely increase in future as more services appear with this integrated meet you can use google to reach anybody if you have their phone number email address can set and you can send them a meet url or schedule something the later on in their calendar naturally duo users expect to be able to call anybody by opening the app and selecting a contact or tapping the duo button available in apps like the google phone app or the messages application none of that is changing though when meet takes over which is a big benefit at the same time duo users will also gain the ability to easily schedule calls which is interestingly something that google told us that consumers are increasingly looking to do as they get back into the real world after two years of mainly remote work there is no denying that having three or four ways to start a call is not the most ideal turn of events though this new google me is the antithesis of what iphones offer with facetime for instance but that platonic ideal of having one true way to reach somebody is actually becoming less idealistic over time and less realistic as there are so many more options and players entering the conference call and video calling market year over year each method for starting a meet call serves a unique circumstance in this instance directly having a person's contact information is the most obvious competitor to facetime available on android even then knowing somebody's phone number implies a level of familiarity that's slightly different than just having their email address the former allows you to video call at any time while the latter might be prefaced with a confirmation text or email beforehand meanwhile starting a link-based call is something that we now expect to be a group exchange and might be best scheduled with a dedicated tool instead of a regular text chain google solution with me seems to be a way to give you each and every way possible to reach somebody there's certainly a complexity to having so many options that undoubtedly comes with a learning curve and it's almost indicative of the difficulties of creating a one-size-fits-all solution such as this and especially given that google didn't persevere with this in the past until then though the google approach is akin to just throwing everything out the wall it might take some time for old duo users to realize everything the new app can do but google is betting that people will come to appreciate all of the choices as they add them in with this merger so that is google's duo meet merger in a nutshell very information dense but as it stands it's a change that does make a lot of sense but one that many will probably dislike nonetheless if you do have any questions about how this might affect you then pop them down in the comment sections below and we'll try to answer as many as possible also just let us know what you think of this change is it something that makes sense or is it a silly way to go about things as often these things end up being hopefully though this has cleared up many of your com many confusion or any questions that you may have about this merger until next time though this is damian with 95 google saying thanks for watching and i will speak to you later you

Channel: 9to5Google

Views: 63,637

Keywords: 9to5Google, Damien Wilde

Id: VYHIUX4cXyY

Length: 9min 44sec (584 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 01 2022