{"id":239676,"date":"2016-08-16T10:21:10","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T10:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=239676"},"modified":"2016-08-16T10:21:10","modified_gmt":"2016-08-16T10:21:10","slug":"google-launches-video-chat-app-to-compete-with-facetime-skype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=239676","title":{"rendered":"Google launches video chat app to compete with FaceTime, Skype"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Google has launched its video chatting app, called Duo.\u00a0It represents Google&#8217;s response to other popular video calling options, including Apple&#8217;s FaceTime, Microsoft&#8217;s Skype and Facebook&#8217;s Messenger.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not that different from the other video chatting services, except that it gives users a glimpse at who&#8217;s making the call, helping people decide whether to answer or not.<\/p>\n<p>Google says it&#8217;s calling the feature, &#8220;knock, knock&#8221;.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image_container \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/976\/cpsprodpb\/113DC\/production\/_90802607_google1.jpg\" alt=\"Google's chat app\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The new app, originally announced in May, is being released as a free service for phones running on Google&#8217;s Android operating system as well as Apple&#8217;s iPhones.<\/p>\n<p>Calls are encrypted and the video resolution changes depending on the speed of your connection.<\/p>\n<p>Like FaceTime on iOS, Duo only requires a person&#8217;s phone number to connect.<\/p>\n<p>Many other services require both people to have account logins to use the video calling options.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image_container \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/976\/cpsprodpb\/161FC\/production\/_90802609_google2.jpg\" alt=\"Google's chat app\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Google&#8217;s been offering video calling through Hangouts since 2013, but the company&#8217;s now tailoring that service for business meetings and it won&#8217;t plug into the new video chat service.<\/p>\n<p>Duo is being billed as a simpler, more reliable way to see friends and family as you talk to them.<\/p>\n<p>The app is rolling out around the world over the next few days.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"embedded-youtube\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CIeMysX76pM\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the first of two new mobile apps that Google has planned for the next few months.<\/p>\n<p>The US company is also preparing to unveil a new messaging app called Allo\u00a0featuring a robotic assistant that will suggest automated responses to texts.<\/p>\n<p>That includes commenting on pictures sent by friends, thanks to its use of image recognition algorithms.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image_container \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/976\/cpsprodpb\/179B\/production\/_89734060_google.jpg\" alt=\"Google\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Google announced a conversation-based tool &#8211; Google Assistant &#8211; to control smartphones, smartwatches and other devices earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>It can be used to find information, play media and carry out tasks via a chat between the user and the software.<\/p>\n<p>The firm also announced a voice-activated device with a built-in speaker called Google Home to deliver the tech to living rooms.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google has launched its video chatting app, called Duo.\u00a0It represents Google&#8217;s response to other popular video calling options, including Apple&#8217;s FaceTime, Microsoft&#8217;s Skype and Facebook&#8217;s Messenger. It&#8217;s not that different from the other video chatting services, except that it gives users a glimpse at who&#8217;s making the call, helping people decide whether to answer or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":239677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=239676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/239677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=239676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=239676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=239676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}