Google has finally brought multi-device support to its video calling app Duo, though there are a couple of catches to be wary of.
For existing users of Duo, you may notice when you launch the app that it will prompt you to link a Google Account (if you haven’t already) so you can enjoy Duo on more than one device. On any secondary devices with your Google Account linked, instead of receiving the usual Duo sign-up process, you’ll be prompted to sign in using Google, which will then make Duo available on that device too.
Once signed in on a second device, users will have the option to sign that device out – in case they don’t want it to ring for Duo calls in future, for example.
Duo support isn’t limited to phones, with the multi-device feature supporting tablets as well, often favoured for leaving lying around in the lounge room. Just one extra way that your tablet can be useful once more. In fact, if you browse the Google Duo page on the Play Store, you’ll see which of your devices you can install it on, and it supports just about everything except Android Wear and Android TV devices.
There are still a few catches, though:
- You still need a phone number to sign up for Duo for the first time. You can’t – at the moment – sign up with an e-mail address alone.
- Pixelbooks and Chromebooks aren’t supported.
- Even though you can link a Google Account, you can’t contact people by email address; you have to know their phone number.
It appears the roll-out has begun, but as with all things like this from Google, it’ll probably take a day or two before it reaches everyone. Make sure you’re running the latest version of Google Duo – 36.1 – which you can grab from the Play Store today.
Now there will be more devices not using Duo
Possibly , Android in some areas is a dog’s breakfast .
I thought Alo might have kicked on , but alas 🙄.
We will see how duo does .
Allo never had a chance. It’s DOA the moment its development Lead decided to exclude SMS.