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This might be a great product, but I'm so burnt by various Google's connectivity and social media products that I won't invest 1 minute of my time on it. Becaus

This might be a great product, but I'm so burnt by various Google's connectivity and social media products that I won't invest 1 minute of my time on it. Because I know it'll be matter of days before google cancels it

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ip26 6y ago
I spent one minute getting my grandparents to install it. One more minute getting my parents to install it. Now we video call. The end. Unlike chat apps, there's not that many people I want to video call.
- hrktb 6y ago
  I already spent 5 minutes explaining my wife how it's neither Hangouts nor Meet, even if it uses the same Google login. At some point clear marketing becomes a user facing feature.
  - 1024core 6y ago
    > I already spent 5 minutes explaining my wife how it's neither Hangouts nor Meet, even if it uses the same Google login. Why would she care? It's a separate app. Just fire it up and start a videocall with someone. With Duo I can call friends on Apple devices, and the quality of the call is excellent. I use it to call my mom (in another city) any time I want to talk to her. She's a technophobe, but even she can answer the call and start chatting with me.
    - hrktb 6y ago
      You case seem to be straightforward because your mom only uses one service. It’s a mess that you need to care about when you use four or five calling services. There’s frustration on a lot of aspects, one of them for instance being that both Hangouts and Meets are integrated to Google Calendar, so if you use both a private and corporate gmail, you’ll get a link to one or the other depending on your meetings. Sometimes from the same calendar screen. Some people won’t care, but there’s enough cases where it will be a PITA to remember which one you’re using or will be using, just to get back to the right window for instance. But really the main frustration is you can’t give someone a Duo address. Or a Google Meet address. You have to give them your email, and then negociate what service they can/are comfortable using. And ghey have to remember what was negociated.
    - throwaway2048 6y ago
      Yeah why would anyone be confused at which Google chat app of the 7+ they've launched you are talking about.
      - 1024core 6y ago
        How many of them have been named "Duo" ?
      - shp0ngle 6y ago
        my grandma doesn’t chat, so she doesn’t use any of the 7+ chat apps. And I am the one initiating the calls anyway, so that’s easy too
- buttersbrian 6y ago
  It is going to get easier, atleast in one use case. My understanding is you will be able to receive video calls inside android/messages even if duo is not installed, but initiate calls only if duo is installed.
  - Mindwipe 6y ago
    Android Messages has to all intents and purposes zero market share. (As it isn't shipped on Samsung devices.)
vesinisa 6y ago
This is sadly very true. I remember watching Google I/O when Duo and Allo were launched. They seemed like a dead product on arrival - no difference whatsoever to existing offerings. Indeed, I remember how the product was discontinued in record time. If you had asked me, Google Duo was dead. Turns out - perplexingly - they only killed the chat app part (Allo) but the FaceTime part (Duo) still roams the Earth as some sort of an undead Google messaging product, probably awaiting its turn in the purgatory (occupied by G+ maybe). Apart from GMail, the only Google communication app that actually made a difference and people liked was Hangouts. For unknown reason, Google would really love to kill it. It officially does not even exist anymore, but I and many others still use it daily. Funny how when you have nearly infinite money you can do absolutely mad stuff and no one just cares.
- coldpie 6y ago
  Oh, people care. Google put a ton of money and effort into Stadia, but it flopped on launch and now seems quite dead. I'd put a good chunk of the blame for that on Google's reputation. Any online discussion or news article about Stadia mentioned Google's penchant for killing products. It's hurting them, but perhaps not enough to overcome their ad revenue, so there's not much motive to change. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/googles-constant-product-shutdowns-are-damaging-its-brand/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/googles-constant-pro...
bagacrap 6y ago
what kind of time investment is it to use a video calling app that comes pre installed on many phones? I called my mom on it the other day but if Google cancels it tomorrow I'll just use something else next time

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

ip26 6y ago

I spent one minute getting my grandparents to install it. One more minute getting my parents to install it. Now we video call. The end. Unlike chat apps, there's not that many people I want to video call.

hrktb 6y ago
I already spent 5 minutes explaining my wife how it's neither Hangouts nor Meet, even if it uses the same Google login. At some point clear marketing becomes a user facing feature.
- 1024core 6y ago
  > I already spent 5 minutes explaining my wife how it's neither Hangouts nor Meet, even if it uses the same Google login. Why would she care? It's a separate app. Just fire it up and start a videocall with someone. With Duo I can call friends on Apple devices, and the quality of the call is excellent. I use it to call my mom (in another city) any time I want to talk to her. She's a technophobe, but even she can answer the call and start chatting with me.
  - hrktb 6y ago
    You case seem to be straightforward because your mom only uses one service. It’s a mess that you need to care about when you use four or five calling services. There’s frustration on a lot of aspects, one of them for instance being that both Hangouts and Meets are integrated to Google Calendar, so if you use both a private and corporate gmail, you’ll get a link to one or the other depending on your meetings. Sometimes from the same calendar screen. Some people won’t care, but there’s enough cases where it will be a PITA to remember which one you’re using or will be using, just to get back to the right window for instance. But really the main frustration is you can’t give someone a Duo address. Or a Google Meet address. You have to give them your email, and then negociate what service they can/are comfortable using. And ghey have to remember what was negociated.
  - throwaway2048 6y ago
    Yeah why would anyone be confused at which Google chat app of the 7+ they've launched you are talking about.
    - 1024core 6y ago
      How many of them have been named "Duo" ?
    - shp0ngle 6y ago
      my grandma doesn’t chat, so she doesn’t use any of the 7+ chat apps. And I am the one initiating the calls anyway, so that’s easy too
buttersbrian 6y ago
It is going to get easier, atleast in one use case. My understanding is you will be able to receive video calls inside android/messages even if duo is not installed, but initiate calls only if duo is installed.
- Mindwipe 6y ago
  Android Messages has to all intents and purposes zero market share. (As it isn't shipped on Samsung devices.)

vesinisa 6y ago

This is sadly very true. I remember watching Google I/O when Duo and Allo were launched. They seemed like a dead product on arrival - no difference whatsoever to existing offerings. Indeed, I remember how the product was discontinued in record time. If you had asked me, Google Duo was dead. Turns out - perplexingly - they only killed the chat app part (Allo) but the FaceTime part (Duo) still roams the Earth as some sort of an undead Google messaging product, probably awaiting its turn in the purgatory (occupied by G+ maybe). Apart from GMail, the only Google communication app that actually made a difference and people liked was Hangouts. For unknown reason, Google would really love to kill it. It officially does not even exist anymore, but I and many others still use it daily. Funny how when you have nearly infinite money you can do absolutely mad stuff and no one just cares.

coldpie 6y ago
Oh, people care. Google put a ton of money and effort into Stadia, but it flopped on launch and now seems quite dead. I'd put a good chunk of the blame for that on Google's reputation. Any online discussion or news article about Stadia mentioned Google's penchant for killing products. It's hurting them, but perhaps not enough to overcome their ad revenue, so there's not much motive to change. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/googles-constant-product-shutdowns-are-damaging-its-brand/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/googles-constant-pro...

bagacrap 6y ago

what kind of time investment is it to use a video calling app that comes pre installed on many phones? I called my mom on it the other day but if Google cancels it tomorrow I'll just use something else next time