Google may pull the plug on Duo for Meet

Google may soon kill one of its video-calling apps Google Duo in favour of Google Meet.

Both Google Duo and Google Meet offer video-calling services. However, Google Meet is relatively-popular as the free video-calling service supports a lot more users in a single meeting. Meet was also recently integrated within the Gmail app. 

The decision of killing Google Duo is the result of Google placing its consumer communication services — Duo, Messages, and Android’s Phone app — under the leadership of G Suite head Javier Soltero, reported 9to5Google.

Soltero, in May, had told employees that it does not make sense for Duo and Meet to coexist. Google made Meet free for everyone earlier this year in a bid to compete against Zoom. 

With all the focus on Meet, the new messaging chief opted to have the service become Google’s one video calling service for both regular and enterprise customers. Internally, this is being described as a merger of the two services that is codenamed “Duet” — a portmanteau of Duo and Meet.

Google Duo was launched alongside Google Allo — a now-dead text messaging app — in 2016 at the Google I/O.

Although the usage of Google Duo saw an increase by eight times during the pandemic, Google Meet’s popularity jumped by up to 30 times with three billion minutes of video meetings and almost three million new users daily. Daily meeting participants crossed 100 million.

The company is said to take nearly two years to make a transition from Duo to Meet.