Google Duo is a wonderful app which enables you to connect with your friends and family over an audio and video call. Google Duo has multiple incredible features, which have made it successful among the crowd. It has emerged as a saviour to those who are feeling stranded at home in the current times. There are several video calling apps, but this serves best as a product from Google. It is, however, not limited to an application but works as a web platform too. So, if you are bored with the Zoom Meeting app, you can use Google Duo to make a call to a small group of friends or colleagues.
What is Google Duo?
Google Duo is a video calling app available for Android and iOS devices as well as a web service. This app is free for the app to function; you only need to enter the phone number. Connect on a voice or video call with another person with the use of phone numbers. It is the simplest of all video calling apps as it opens on the homepage with your contact list to make calling easy. The person can add anyone on it with an invite sent on text, mail or messaging platforms. You can make group calls for upto 12 members. It lets a person record audio and video messages for the recipient if the call goes unanswered. There are other essential features of Google Duo, which makes it a must-use calling service for all. Let’s discuss its features and uses in the next sections.
Best features:
1. Preview Incoming Calls
You can see the video for the person calling you even before you join the call. This gives you an option to receive or ignore the call, along with informing you who is on the other end. It is a much needed feature for the video calling services to ensure the safety of the recipient.
2. Low Light Mode
To save the battery and to keep continuing the call, this feature was added to Google Duo. This feature, when enabled, will tune to a lower quality of the video during the time your battery is low. This also shows a notification to inform the user and hence, they can tap on it to turn it on immediately. This feature helps a lot as other video calling apps will instead disconnect or keep consuming the battery and your phone will shut down unexpectedly.
3. Data Saving Mode
You can find this feature on the Settings menu. Turn it on to save the data while you are using your cellular data on your phone. It will ensure the video and voice call continues despite being on the cellular data but also will not consume much of it by switching to lower quality audio and video.
4. Adding Duo Calls to Device’s call history
If you wish to use the Google Duo for the means of making calls more frequently, this feature is for you. You can enable the feature from the Settings menu to add the Duo calls to your phone’s call history.
5. Block users
This feature lets you block a user on the Google Duo application. To add a person to the blocked list, you need to tap on their contact from the contact list on the app. Now, as you see the Contact, tap on the three-dot option on the Top-right corner on the screen. The Options will appear, and you can select the Block user option. After this, they won’t be able to contact you on GoogleDuo. However, you can interact with them in a group call. To review or to remove someone from the Blocked list, go to the Settings from the Home page and check the Blocked Users option.
6. Themes
Select to view the app in either Dark or Light Theme. Go to Settings from the home page and go to Choose Theme. Here you get three options- Light, Dark and Set by Battery Saver, tap on your selection.
7. Easy Invite
You can easily invite people from your contact list to join you on Google Duo. On the home page, tap on the top right corner three-dot icon. Here you can see the Invite People option, tap on it. A list of all your contacts saved on the device appears, and you can tap for as many you want to be with you Google Duo. The invite can be shared over social media apps, mail, text or the recipient can copy-paste it.
8. Privacy
Google Duo is very inclined towards privacy and therefore has an end to end encryption for all calls.
9. Effects
Use the Effects on the video messages you want to send your loved one on Google Duo. This is more of a new feature, which was added to make the message section exciting.
How to get Google Duo?
For your Android device, get Google Duo as the application for your smartphone and tablets.
Get the Google Duo for Android from the Google Play Store.
For your iOS device, get Google Duo as the application for iPhones and iPads.
Get the Google Duo for iOS from AppStore. Although there are several calling apps for Android, this is one of the finest with the picture and sound quality.
For your Windows PC and Mac, get Google Duo using the web service. It has limited features but can connect you over voice and video calls with your contacts.
How To Make Video Calls From Google Duo?
You can make video calls to the people who are added to your contact list on your phones. If they have your phone number added in their contact list, they will get a notification of the call. First, you need to add your phone number to the app to get the contacts from the phone number to sync on the app’s contact list. You can invite people on Google Duo if they are not using the app. One can tap on an existing contact, and it will show you an option of a voice call, video call or record message.
Making video calls from Google Duo is very easy as you just need to tap on the middle option, which says the video. Now the call will ring until the other person receives the call.
Note: Your video without sound begins to show to the people you are calling in a video call on Google Duo. To make voice calls from Google Duo, tap on the left option. To record a message go to the right option and tap on it.
How To Send Messages From Google Duo?
To send messages from Google Duo is super easy. If you have ever made calls from Google Duo, and it went unanswered, you would know this. As the unanswered calls end with a page prompting you to record and send a message to the person you just called. This is to make sure nothing’s left behind and what you wanted to say can be reached to them. It is a cool feature of Google Duo as you are not left thinking about how long it will take for you to send your message. You instantly can tap on the record button and send an audio or video message.
When you do not want to call but to send just a message, this is also possible. Just open Google Duo and select a contact from your list now tap on the name. Now out the three options on the screen, tap on the right option and record your audio or video message and send it to them.
How Many People Can Join A Group Call On Google Duo?
Upto 12 people can join Google Duo group calls, for that you will be required to create a group before making the call. Creating a group is an option shown right above your contacts on the homepage of the app. You can check the boxes in front of the contacts to add them to your group. Give the group and name and make the call. If a few people have not received the call, you can call them again in the middle of the ongoing call. Just tap on the profile icon shown on the screen and a call notification will be sent to them once again. It will not disrupt your ongoing call, and they can also join the call quickly.
Can I Use Google Duo Without A Phone Number?
Yes, in the recent development, Google has made it possible to use the Duo app without linking one’s phone number. However, it is known that a few types of Gmail accounts such as G Suite accounts won’t be able to avail this facility.
Verdict:
It is a perfectly fine working video calling app, which must be used more for its audio and video quality. The one which is offered by Google has features such as recorded video audio messages for your contacts. Another feature which enables one to view who is calling before answering makes it easy to decide if to answer the call. For all those who are looking for a better video calling app for talking to your best friends or family in a group, you can rely on Google Duo.
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