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i don't understand why allo and duo are separate apps and not just part of the hangouts app. I can't believe that no one at google said, "Isn't it weird that we
by jccalhoun 10y ago
i don't understand why allo and duo are separate apps and not just part of the hangouts app. I can't believe that no one at google said, "Isn't it weird that we are releasing two more messaging apps?" so there must be some logic behind it but I can't see it.
- Certhas 10y agoUnix philosophy? Have small apps that do one thing well. Face to face video calling and chatting are very different activities. I would guess that their analysis was that hangout does everything anyone needs and more, but people don't use it because they don't know. Also it's not as much all or nothing. If I am already using Whatsapp for chat, going to Duo for videocalling is lower friction than going to Hangouts.
- ashark 10y agoMy best guess, just from observing Google from the outside, is that they have a real problem doing boring stuff. Maintain something? Boring, won't do it. Fix developer-facing bugs in Android? Boring, won't do it (instead, let it sit ignored for 2 years then inaccurately mark the bug obsolete). Document anything beyond some surface-level relatively-fun-to-write stuff? Boring, won't do it. Update docs? Boring, maybe half-ass it and leave the rest outdated, but don't bother to mark it as such. Nitty-gritty work to really support e.g. Material Design? OMG so boring. Port existing library/SDK to one of our other platforms (I'm looking at you Android Maps API)? Ugh, no, I guess I'll do the minimum possible so I can move on to something more fun. Improve performance on any of our many poorly-performing products? BORING BORING BORING, no.