Google Duo, the Facetime Android, you will be facing the harsh reality – Hypertext

Ten million downloads in a month is not trivial. It is a great success for any application worth its salt, but when the developer is Google and your own platform, start to jump off the alarms.

we Talk about Duo, the implementation of video calls from Google, which is seeing its adoption is being slower than expected "FaceTime for Android". A million downloads in its launch, four more in a week, and up to ten million up to 29 days of being available on Google Play.

The promotional efforts on the part of Google being null. Since they were announced at Google IO few months ago, Allo —its sister application for messaging, not yet published— and the Duo have gone without penalty or glory… for the moment.

why not endorse it?

Allo is the app sister Duo focused on the messaging.

Although Google could choose to promotions massive as tv ads or on their own sites —YouTube for example—, the best impetus could come from the Android itself. Reach agreements with the manufacturers to pre-install on their smartphones and tablets would be the classic choice, but now Google is in the middle of a war regulatory for this type of treatment.

That Allo has not been launched yet may indicate that Google is not in a hurry to promote Duo, and wait for the new Nexus —or Pixel, as it seems to be called— come on to the market. Without any doubt, bring both applications to the home screen prominently.

But everything is even more complicated, and we may be seeing just a new episode of lack of harmony between different groups within Google.

The Boulevard of Broken Apps

In a world where there is Google Hangouts, the messaging app standard Android —also available for iOS and web, the existence of Allo and Duo raised doubts. Why create apps so similar? what will be forgotten as Google Spaces? Why not merge both options in one?

The history of Google with the social applications is a path full of decomposing corpses and gutters full of broken toys: Buzz, Plus, Voice, Talk, Spaces, Reader, and others adopted before leaving as Jaiku or Orkut, we wonder if Allo and Duo will end up also in the same path.