Skip to main content

Google Meet and Google Duo begin confusing merger

Google has begun the next phase of merging its Duo and Meet video chat apps into one service.

The brand sent out an update on Wednesday, which will change the Google Duo icon to Google Meet. The update is largely aesthetic but is set to roll out for Android and iOS devices over the coming weeks. You can expect to receive a home screen notification explaining how Google Duo has been merged into Google Meet.

Google services (YouTube, Gmail, Chrome, Duo, Meet, Google Podcasts) icons app on smartphone screen.
Koshiro K / Shutterstock

The brand detailed in June that it has plans to meld the two chat services into a more professional video meeting system, which will be branded under a single name, Google Meet. The transition quickly began in July with Google Google started making changes to the system, moving several Meet features onto Duo, including:

  • Custom virtual backgrounds for video communication
  • Meeting scheduling
  • In-meeting chatrooms
  • In-call live-share of content
  • Real-time closed captions
  • Video call limit increased from 32 to 100 participants
  • Google tools integration with Gmail, Google Calendar, Assistant, Messages, and more.
  • The brand also sent out an update, changing the app icon to “Google Meet (original).”
Recommended Videos

TechCrunch noted that many frequent Google Meet users likely wouldn’t have noticed the icon shift as a major change. However, once the August update hits devices, they will be forced to notice the transition. The publication also added as the merge continues, you’ll need a Google account to access the singular Meet features. Previously, Duo as a call app only required a phone number.

As the merge culminates around September, everyone will see the new Google Meet icon and app name, and those who want to install Google video messaging service for the first time will have to assess the new Google Meet app, which will be available at the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

The Google Meet (original) app will be available for some time, but it will eventually be retired, with its users receiving a recommendation to update to the new application.

Google is also updating its Google Meet branding on its Duo on the Web services as of Wednesday; however, transitioning that platform completely to the new system is planned over the next several months, the brand said.

The fate of Google Duo being merged into Google Meet seems to simply be a numbers game, as opposed to scrapping the app altogether. 9to5Google noted in June that Google Duo has 5 billion Android downloads, in comparison to Google Meet, which has over 100 million downloads.

Fionna Agomuoh
Fionna Agomuoh is a Computing Writer at Digital Trends. She covers a range of topics in the computing space, including…
Google adds Spanish and French to NotebookLM in huge language update
Google video explaining Audio Overview languages.

NotebookLM is one of Google's lesser-used AI products but it introduced a feature that's becoming increasingly popular -- Audio Overviews. The company already brought it over to Gemini and plans to add the feature to Google Docs in the next few months too. Until now, Audio Overviews has been an English-only tool but as of this week, it's available in over 50 languages.

The NotebookLM platform is all about putting together notebooks of information and different sources and using LLMs to interact with them. Audio Overviews is basically a fancy summary tool -- it lets you generate audio summaries of your selected sources that are presented in the style of a podcast with two AI hosts.

Read more
‘You can’t lick a badger twice’: How Google’s AI Overview hallucinates idioms
Samples of Google AI Overview errors.

The latest AI trend is a funny one, as a user has discovered that you can plug a made-up phrase into Google and append it with "meaning," then Google's AI Overview feature will hallucinate a meaning for the phrase.

Historian Greg Jenner kicked off the trend with a post on Bluesky in which he asked Google to explain the meaning of "You can't lick a badger twice." AI Overview helpfully explained that this expression means that you can't deceive someone a second time after they've already been tricked once -- which seems like a reasonable explanation, but ignores the fact that this idiom didn't exist before this query went viral.

Read more
Google might have to sell Chrome — and OpenAI wants to buy it
OpenAI press image

It feels like all of the big tech companies practically live in courtrooms lately, but it also feels like not much really comes of it. Decisions get made and unmade again, and it takes a long time for anything to affect consumers. At the moment, Google is in danger of getting dismantled and sold for parts -- and if it really happens, OpenAI has told the judge that it would be interested in buying.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, currently doesn't work with Google at all. Apparently, it wanted to make a deal last year to use Google's search technology with ChatGPT but it didn't work out. Instead, OpenAI is now working on its own search index but it's turning out to be a much more time-consuming project than anticipated.

Read more