Tech giant has launched its FaceTime competitor video calling app

folarin okunola

August 17, 2016 9:07 AM

Google announced the worldwide rollout of the one-to-one video calling apps and it says the app will be rolling out globally on Android and iOS in 78 languages.

Google Duo

Remember the Duo video calling app which Google introduced earlier in the year at its I/O developer conference? Well, it has officially been launched today.

Google announced the worldwide rollout of the one-to-one video calling apps and it says the app will be rolling out globally on Android and iOS in 78 languages.

Google's messaging app strategy is quite confusing to be honest. Between Hangouts, Duo, the Android text messaging app, and Google Chat, the company has over four messaging apps in its repertoire.

Be that as it may, the Duo app has some interesting features and is aimed at competing with Apple's FaceTime video calling app.

All a user needs is their phone number - just like it WhatsApp and Telegram - and they will be able to have video chat conversations with anyone on their phone's contact list.

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Google also says the app is optimised to adjust to changing network conditions which means that it can switch between Wi-Fi and cellular data automatically without dropping calls.

Encryption is the name of the game in mobile security these days and it is the same on Duo. The app supports end-to-end encryption on all video calls.

Duo also features something called Knock Knock while lets you see a live preview video of your caller before you answer which should help you take only calls that you want.

Of course there are already a lot of video calling apps out there but Google hopes that the success of FaceTime on iOS devices - and some of the features which it is baking into its own app - will serve as a good reference point to base the success of Duo on, especially since it will be available on both Android and iOS.

The app is not yet available in Nigeria, but you can go on the Google Play Store to pre-register so you get a notification when it does become available.

folarin okunola