{"id":34743,"date":"2022-06-03T07:24:34","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T07:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/googles-merger-of-duo-and-meet-fixes-one-of-the-companys-worst-tendencies\/"},"modified":"2022-06-03T07:24:34","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T07:24:34","slug":"googles-merger-of-duo-and-meet-fixes-one-of-the-companys-worst-tendencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/googles-merger-of-duo-and-meet-fixes-one-of-the-companys-worst-tendencies\/","title":{"rendered":"Google’s merger of Duo and Meet fixes one of the company’s worst tendencies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
Google has been widely criticized in the tech blogs for two things in recent years: The \u201cGoogle kills X\u201d meme, and the company’s seeming obsession with messaging services. If Google isn’t killing a service that customers love like Google Reader, or Inbox, or Play Music, then it’s finding a new way to add a messaging system to Google Maps or Google Photos, or building yet another new one entirely. It’s partly a joke, but sadly all too serious, because Google actually does these things. Or, at least, it used to. Something about the recent announcement that Google Meet and Duo are merging strikes me as different, and maybe the company is starting to see the big picture and begin fixing these issues.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
ANDROIDPOLICE VIDEO OF THE DAY<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
This isn’t quite tinfoil hat-levels of conspiracy, but it is something I’ve been debating in hushed tones with my fellows at Android Police, because this is<\/em> different. Google has announced that the long-rumored merger between its two video calling platforms is happening later this year, but one isn’t simply eating the other. Although Duo is losing its branding as part of the change, Google’s not leaving it behind. The Duo mobile app is taking over for the newly unified Meet, though Meet is maintaining its presence on the web, and Google promises feature parity before the end. Folks are already poking fun about how complicated the merger between Google Meet and Duo seems to be since it’s not just one service outright eating the other, but it’s exactly as simple as I just described: Google Meet everywhere except on mobile, where it will be Meet through the Duo app (and the reason for that<\/em> is clear, too).<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n\n
\n
I can’t think of another project merger \/ death at Google that can be summed up so gracefully.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n
I can’t think of another project merger \/ death at Google that can be summed up so gracefully. Part of that surely comes down to Google explaining things so succinctly, but the bigger part is simply that it is<\/em> I know succinct.<\/p>\n
Think of the \u201cmerger\u201d between Google Chat (not that Chat) and Hangouts. Hangouts itself was victim to an internal breakup that ultimately created Google Meet, and the text-based dregs languished as Google obsessed over the ultimately doomed Allo. Features were slowly killed (SMS support was removed, Google Voice Integration left behind, Google Fi customers were pushed to the Messages app), and finally, the Hangouts Chat project spun from its decaying corpse was selected as its replacement. By the time Google decided Chat was the future, feature parity wasn’t a concern – Hangouts was so barebones, there wasn’t anything left for a new service to add. In fact, the feature comparison between Hangouts and Google Chat heavily <\/em>favors Chat. But the old Hangouts app still works in this far-flung year of 2022, as does the Hangouts site.<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n
The death of Hangouts has been loud, confusing, and drawn-out, while the changes to Duo and Meet are pretty clear cut before things have even begun. It could be a messier process than we’re expecting, but it really doesn’t sound like it.<\/p>\n\n
\n
The death of Hangouts has been loud, confusing, and drawn-out, while the changes to Duo and Meet are pretty clear cut before things have even begun.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n
Then there’s the case of Gmail and the death of Inbox. Google promised that Inbox’s bundles would come to Gmail, a guarantee that remains unfulfilled nearly half a decade later. When delivering feature parity means doing actual work, Google is slow to do it, if it happens at all, as those that switched from Google Play Music to YouTube Music can tell you. The closest thing to a true “merger” in spirit I think we’ve seen for Google apps and services might be the Google Pay \/ Android Pay \/ Tez union, which started with a single branding across different payment verticals and markets, but eventually spread to a unified app (and soon, a return of Google Wallet branding). But even that merger, which I’d argue was a success, was a messier and seemingly more organic process than the Duo \/ Meet one.<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n
I’m sure there are other examples where Google has brought things together more successfully and cleanly, but they’re the exception rather than the rule. Even the examples above are a little unusual; often Google just ignores or outright kills one thing to make room for another. Customers wail and gnash teeth as ages go by between updates or another headstone is erected in the Google Graveyard, but the company doesn’t care. And worse, there’s no one there <\/em>to care as engineers and project managers shuffle off to new roles. Google’s broken toys are simply left on the ground until someone decides to turn off the URLs and apps.<\/p>\n
That’s Google’s reputation, and today feels different. Duo hasn’t been abandoned; it got a fresh Material You-themed update last year, and it’s still receiving a steady trickle of updates. Meet hasn’t been ignored either, picking up new little features every few weeks. Google’s definitely not ignoring one of these in favor of the other. And Google’s not just killing one to make room, either. Bits of Duo will persist as Meet moves into its app, and Meet will persist on other platforms and in branding. Google even showed some UI tweaks we can expect. It didn’t look like Meet or Duo, but a union of the two – a \u201cmerger,\u201d if you will.<\/p>\n