Duo and Google Meet merger enters final phase with app rename

Google announced back in June that they would be adding all of Google Meet’s features to Google Duo and combining the two video calling services into one. The transition into this “one video app to rule them all” solution began last month, in stages, as is customary for Google’s larger software rollouts. For Duo customers, this change will effectively give them all the extra features from Meet, such as animated backgrounds and visual effects, in-meeting chat, and captions. For Google, it takes care of the redundancy of having two video calling apps.

The initial rollout consisted of the Duo app receiving the new Meet features and a banner notifying users of the change to come. Today though, Google announced that they are ready for the next phase, which will replace the Duo app name and icon with Google Meet. Those that already have the Meet app installed will see theirs renamed to “Google Meet (original),” and the app will continue to be fully functional. However, Google recommends using the new app to get combined video meeting and calling features in one place.

Google is also adding live sharing to Google Meet, allowing meeting participants to share and interact with content live. This includes activities such as watching videos together on YouTube, listening to music together, or playing games like UNO while you wait for the presenter to start. This seems like a great solution to the good old workaround of embedding a song on a Google Slide as “hold music” during a presentation.

Google says the Duo upgrade to Meet will take place throughout this month on phones and tablets, but other devices will not receive this update until later. Additionally, Chromebook users who use the Duo web app will be redirected to meet.google.com/calling, which is still a work in progress. Other than that, keep an eye out for the Duo app update on the Play Store to make sure your transition to Meet is as smooth as possible.