About a week ago, Google released the Duo app. The video – messaging app was announced for the first time during Google I/O, alongside the Allo messaging app which has not been released yet.
A few days after the app's release for Android and iOS, Duo quickly took the top spot in the Play Store, surpassing big names like Facebook, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Snapchat.
Sundar Pichai announced that the Duo app managed to gather over 5 million downloads for Android smartphones in about a week since its launch.
Google Duo now over 5M Android downloads in a week! https://t.co/ctwn131gYq
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) August 25, 2016
It's quite an impressive feat considering the app only offers a few basic features. However, it does offer a simplistic interface and the ability to maintain video chats even when there are connectivity issues.
Google has managed the latter feature by developing a new tool that allows Duo to quickly switch from a WiFi connection to a cellular data connection.
Another feature that the Duο application has is a tool that displays a video of the person who started the call before the recipient answers the call.
This naturally helps users to identify callers more easily or even avoid calls they do not wish to answer.
