When Google first released the Allo messaging app and the Duo calling app, people were actually wondering why they had to release two separate apps for these two closely related functions. Even weirder, there actually wasn’t any integration between these two products. Well, Google announced previously that they will be bringing the Duo calling feature to Allo, and now finally they are rolling it out to users. It’s still not clear why they don’t just merge it into one app, but hey, we’re going to take what we can.
When you’re chatting with someone on Allo and you suddenly realize that just chatting won’t do the trick and you want to do a video call with them, you will have to leave the app and go to Duo to make that call. But now after you update to the latest version, from within the messaging app, you can already make that call. Just tap on the contact you want to make an audio or video call/chat with, and voila, you can talk to them or see them digitally.
The announcement for this new feature was made by Amit Fulay, Head of Product for Google Allo, Google Duo & WebRTC. He simply said that the new version of the Allo app will now let you “start a Duo call right from your chat”. However, it seems that it’s not yet on our device’s Play Store changelog just yet, so it means it’s a gradual rollout.
New version of Allo launching today ..you can now start a Duo call right from your chat. #GoogleAllo #GoogleDuo
— Amit Fulay (@amitfulay) June 19, 2017
Allo was supposedly meant to go match the simplicity of iMessage while Duo was patterned after FaceTime, but of course for Android. But given that it’s not that big of a hit (at least not yet), they might start rethinking what to do with these two apps.
SOURCE: @amitfulay
