Google Merging Meet and Duo Into Single App

Google wants to have a single app for all voice-and-video needs.

Google wants to have a single app for all voice-and-video needs.

Google maintains several apps with voice and video calling functionality, though two of the most prominent are Google Meet and Google Duo. Google Duo is intended more as a direct, person-to-person messaging app like Skype, while Google Meet is intended more for large-scale, multi-person video calls like Zoom. However, Google has realized recently that having two apps with similar functions can be potentially confusing to users, and so has resolved to narrow the field a bit.

Google announced today that going forward, the Meet and Duo apps will be merged into a single all-purpose video and voice messaging app, which will retain the moniker of Google Meet.

“What’s been really important is understanding how people make the choice as to what tool they’re going to use, for what purpose, in what circumstance,” Google Workspace head Javier Soltero told The Verge, explaining that the sheer number of IDs and email addresses used in today’s digital landscape could be condensed and simplified.

“It’s really important and powerful to be able to reach you that way,” Soltero says, “and allow you then to decide whether you want to be reached or not, as opposed to having to manage all of these different identities and deal with the consequences.”