Google Duo has emerged as a shining beacon in the search giant’s not so impressive social product portfolio. The success of Duo can be owed to the fact that it is a simple application that works as advertised. The cross-platform video calling application has emerged as a popular service during the lockdown. In order to make it better, Google has introduced a couple of new features. Last month, Duo gained support for group calling with a maximum participant count of 12 people. Now, it is making the platform even better with few new features.
The first feature and also the only one rolling out today is called capture mode. Google is adding a capture button to the app where users can take a photo of the current Duo call. This is interesting because it will allow you users to take photos and share them as memories on Instagram or Snapchat. The feature is a much needed improvement over the current method where people simply take screenshots. In order to take a photo of your current Duo call, you need to enable “Duo moments” in the settings.
Google Duo is also taking privacy into view for this feature. In order to capture a picture of the call, all the participants in the call will have to enable “Duo moments” in settings. While screenshot means that you take a picture regardless of whether all participants have given consent. Duo is tackling this head-on by making it mandatory for all participants to consent by enabling the setting in their application.
Google Duo is taking three more features as part of the announcement today but won’t be available immediately. You will soon be able to save video messages sent through Duo. This is better than the current system where messages expire after 24 hours. The app is also getting updated to use the AV1 video codec. This should improve performance over low bandwidth connections. The third feature being another increase in the number of participants but the actual number has not been confirmed.
