Video calling is being integrated into the core Android functionality—taking it to FaceTime and making it as easy as a voice call or SMS.

Video into the OS

Google Duo is promoted as the ‘highest quality one-to-one video calling app’. Now, they’re squeezing that into the stock Android OS experience.

As you can see in the image above, users can now launch video chat directly from their default Contacts app. In fact, they can also do it directly from the Phone app, or the Messages app. 

Official word

The Google Blog has announced that this functionality is being rolled out now to Pixel, Nexus and Android One devices, with others to follow.

There is an official support page for making video calls with Android’s Phone, Contacts, or Messages app. It mentions that users must be on Android 7.0 or higher, and have Duo installed and set up.

Tight with Duo

So, this is less a new feature, and more a tighter integration of Duo into Android.

Duo plugs right in and—once installed and set-up—users can leave it alone, like all those Google services that probably make the phone work good.

Is the future of video chat purely personal comms, or have you got good ideas for how to use it in customer service and beyond?

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