Google launched to compete with FaceTime Duo – El Cronista

<- PREVIOUS NOTE -> Financial Times

Google launched yesterday its response to FaceTime, the video call application Apple, in an attempt to regain lost ground in the crucial market of apps for mobile communications.
the arrival of Duo, a simple application to make video calls between smartphones, occurs before the promised launch this summer of Allo, an app mobile messaging would play an even more important in Google’s efforts to be at the height of the changing habits of its users regarding smartphones role.
Nick Fox, director of mobile communications applications for Google, said the company hopes to get Duo is the main video calling app in Android phones and convert contacts face to face on a more frequent and natural form of communication . As Allo, the service was first shown in May at the annual developer conference Google.
But will have to compete with a number of messaging apps that offer video communications, including Microsoft and Facebook Skype Messenger, which introduced video calls last year.
“I do not think it will be easy for Google to get lots of users are coming late to the party,” said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Creative Strategies. “People in the world of Android found other apps to use.”
In an attempt to differentiate the service, users Duo with Android phones can use the so-called Knock Knock to see the person making the call before deciding whether to accept, although analysts say it is unlikely that too heavy when choosing a video calling app.
repeated failed attempts that made Google to come up with different forms of messaging, starting with Buzz communications service in 2010, demonstrated the importance acquired this market, Geoff Blaber, analyst at CCS Insight.
“it is vital ?? messaging applications became platforms in their own right,” he said, adding, the that made the market is strategically important for the future of Google as it was in recent years, the mobile operating system Android.
the above video call application of Google, named Hangouts, was part of his Google+ social network, a failed attempt five years ago to compete with the original social networking service Facebook PC. Since then, there emerged a new generation of messaging apps for smartphones, led by Tencent WeChat; and Google is that is competing with new dominant rivals from Facebook in the form of WhatsApp and Messenger.
Use Android as a launching pad to attract a wide audience will be difficult at this time when antitrust regulators are each increasingly concerned about the use by Google of its dominant operating system for smartphones, analysts said.
with Duo, Google hopes to use the main constraint has FaceTime, which can only be used on iPhones.