Google has released the application Duo for video chat for iOS and Android

Binding to a phone number, no google account required

Today, Google announced the release of the new mobile application Google Duo, which is designed for live video chat 1-on-1 with the binding of subscribers to a phone number. The program runs on Android and iOS and is a direct competitor to FaceTime. End-to-end encryption is supported, but the program code is closed.

The application works on the WebRTC technology, completely independent of other communication programs of Google, it is in no way connected with Google Chat, Hangouts, Spaces or future messengers Allo. You don't even need a Google account to talk.

The preliminary announcement of Google Duo took place in May at the Google I / O conference, and today it was rolled out in the Google Play and AppStore application catalogs.
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Google Duo on Google Play (in the coming hours / days will appear for all regions)
Google Duo on the AppStore

Alternative APK links: 1 , 2 . There the files were published back in May, before the official announcement, but everything works without problems.

The application is quite simple, it does not support group video chats, video effects overlay or text chat. To talk to someone from your address book, you can send him an SMS with a link to download the program.

An interesting feature of the program is the Knock Knock function, which broadcasts video from the subscriber before you receive the call . Unfortunately, this interesting feature does not work under iOS, because Apple does not give third-party developers access to the lock screen.

There are some other small "chips": for example, touching the image of your face during a conversation makes it bigger.



Using the QUIC experimental transport protocol, the program works on any channel, even 2G - in this case only sound is transmitted.

It’s hard to say how Google will manage to increase its user base from scratch and join the battle with rivals FaceTime, Skype, Facebook Messenger, Viber, which already have hundreds of millions of users - and all of them support the video chat function.

The date of the termination of the development of the next Google program has not yet been announced, they joke on the forums. The company has just discontinued support for Hangouts On Air on Google+ (from September 12, you can "hang out" only on YouTube).