Just four days after start of the global rollout of Google Duo, the search giant's new video calling app is topping charts on Google Play. The app's technical lead Justin Uberti has tweeted that Duo is now the top free app. Alongside the huge accomplishment, Uberti also announced that rollout of the app is now complete, and Google Duo should now be available in all countries for free download.
Google Duo sits on the top spot for free apps in Google Play US, above other popular apps like Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and YouTube Music. In India, the app sits on the sixth position with WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, ShareIt, Facebook, and UC Browser apps still in the lead. However, the app is topping the chart in the 'Top New Free', and 'Trending' sections. In the India App Store, Google Duo is topping the charts under the free section, with WhatsApp, ShareIt, Facebook and the other usual suspects falling behind it.
Google Duo was first announced at I/O developers conference in May, where the tech giant promised a global rollout in a few months. In the initial stages of rollout, few users in US and Canada did complain about failed verification via SMS, but that soon got fixed, and the global rollout has now successfully been completed.
Google's new video calling app will compete with FaceTime, Skype, Viber, and others. It's a fairly simple app that lets you video call all your contacts that have the app installed on their phones. Google claims that the app works even on low strength networks. The company elaborates that the app adjusts quality of the video automatically in spotty networks to avoid hiccups in the conversation.
Google Duo comes with end-to-end encryption, and also has a feature called Knock Knock which essentially shows you a preview video of the caller, before picking up the call. So instead of just the name, the video of the caller is also played at the back. Once the user picks up the call, the audio gets turned on, and the two parties can then converse easily.
Alongside Duo, Google had also announced the Allo instant messaging app for Android and iOS. The big highlights on this app are Google Assistant integration, and Smart Reply.
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