As social distancing and lockdown measures continue across most countries in the world, many companies and people are opting for video conferencing apps such as Google Duo, WhatsApp, etc., to connect with others.
Google Duo has been releasing a slew of updates to make their app highly user friendly.
Google, in a blog, announced that it is making several changes to its video calling app as it plans to launch a new video codec technology. This new technology is aimed at improving the quality and reliability of the video call quality even for low bandwidth connections. Additionally, Google Duo has included another feature that will allow users to take a photo and capture priceless moments on tablets, smartphones, and Chromebooks. Users can then share these photos with everyone on the call automatically.
Also, Google announced that the app now allows 12 participants on group calls for both Android as well as iOS users. Furthermore, Google stated that it would increase the participants' limit in the future.
The announcement about call support was made on Twitter by Sanaz Ahari, Sr. Director of Product and Design at Google. She also added that through Google Duo they are trying to enable users to see their loved ones around the world in these trying times.
Google also added that its video app has been found to send 180% more messages with an 800% increase in regions having severe impacts due to social distancing and lockdown. Soon, users will have the option to save the messages automatically in Duo instead of having them expire after 24 hours.