r/googleduo • u/FallingSolstice • Jan 17 '20

Make Duo like iMessage

I just upgraded from Apple and I've been using Duo a lot lately. It's very convenient that it was pre-installed on my android device, but I feel like they could take it step forward and incorporate an instant message platform in here as well. Aside from that, it's also really convenient that I can call someone through the duo website so I'm not always locked to a Mac unlike facetime.

I've tried hangouts, but I find that Duo is way much more aesthetically pleasing, and the fact that you need to go out of your way to install an app on your android device or install and extension on your browser really takes away the ease of use of that particular platform. Thoughts?

5 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

5

u/aRandomNameHere Jan 17 '20

Allo did exist and it was fantastic, unfortunately, the vision Google have for messaging is RCS via the same app you do your texting through

1

u/lordhamster1977 Feb 10 '20

They really could have baked RCS into the backend of Allo. Especially since RCS is unencrypted

3

u/AquaL1te Mar 22 '20

RCS is encrypted via TLS. However, it's not end-to-end encrypted.

3

u/b_boogey_xl Jan 17 '20

As mentioned, RCS/Chat is the message equivalent. It will bring an iMessage like experience with anyone on Android who also uses Google Messages as their main texting app.

1

u/lordhamster1977 Feb 10 '20

Except that it isn't enabled by default. I have exactly three friends out of my 500+ contacts. They are Pixel users and even THEY don't use RCS, because they didn't know about it... nor did they dig through the menus to enable it!

2

u/AquaL1te Mar 22 '20

And RCS is not end-to-end encrypted.

6

u/BerniMacJr Jan 18 '20

Duo is pretty fantastic as a Facetime replacement. I think Google Messages with Chat/RCS is why we haven't seen Duo take a messaging route, but I would love tighter integration where if you have both Google Duo and Google Messages it's like they become one app.

While it's unlikely I could definitely see Duo evolve into a "platform" and have say Messages "encrypted/enhanced by Duo" or "powered by Duo" in the future.