Google Duo Now Offers Improved Low-bandwidth Video Calls
Posted on April 23, 2020 by Mehedi Hassan in Google with 2 Comments
Google is rolling out a new update to Google Duo this week. The company’s video calling app is getting some new features at a time where video calling apps are becoming incredibly popular. Google says the company has seen 8x more group calls on Duo in the past four weeks.
The main new feature in Google Duo is improved quality for low-bandwidth video calls. Google is now using a new video codec called AV1, which other companies like Netflix started using recently as it is more efficient than the VP9 codec. Google says the use of AV1 will allow Duo to offer improved video call quality and reliability, even for low-bandwidth calls.
Google Duo also now lets users take a photo together when in a video call — the new feature makes it much easier to take a snapshot of your call instead of having to do a screenshot.
Google noted that the company recently expanded group video calls to support 12 participants at once, and it hopes to add support form ore participants in the coming weeks as well.
Tagged with Google Duo