Google Duo crosses 5 million downloads on Play Store

Google Duo was first Duo at the annual I/O conference in 2016 along with Allo (a new messaging app).

Google Duo has crossed 5 million downloads in a week on Play Store. Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the same in a tweet. “Google Duo now over 5M Android downloads in a week,” he said. Google Duo, a video-calling app for one-on-one interactions, was made available globally on August 18. The app works on Android and iOS. Users need only their mobile number to sign into Duo.

The highlight of Google Duo is its network efficiency. Google’s Product Manager says “our app is reliable across networks, and works across platforms. So if your network is not that good, it will adjust the video definition accordingly, and Duo is smart enough to adapt to these conditions.” In our review, we said your download and upload speeds will make a difference to how well a video call goes on Duo.

Given that Google Duo is up against established video-calling apps like Skype and Facebook Messenger; the numbers come as a bit of a surprise. Google Duo’s 5 million downloads is a week reflects its growing popularity in the video-calling segment. Duo’s simple interface is a big plus for the app. Google Duo let users just type for a contact with whom they wish to do a video-call. This simple log-in process seems to be working to Duo’s advantage in bringing in more users. Also, Duo is end-to-end encrypted for all calls.

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Google Duo was first Duo at the annual I/O conference in 2016 along with Allo (a new messaging app). Google says its decision to keep messaging and video-calling apps separate was a deliberate one, so as to let a user choose an app for a dedicated purpose.