You can now sign up for Google Duo without a phone number and it works with Family Link, but there’s a trick

Today is the day, the day many people have been waiting for since Google launched Duo back in 2016. You can now sign up for and use a Google Duo account without an email address. Yes, Google’s almost 4 year-old product just got one of the biggest features it’s been missing since launch.

Google started to add Gmail addresses as a means of identification and communication a while back and has slowly move towards using email addresses for identification however you still needed a phone number to create an account. Turns out there’s a work around. If you sign up using an Android Tablet you can bypass the need for a phone number.

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As you can see above Android Police was able to create a brand new account without ever entering a phone number. What’s more it’s being reported that this works for family link accounts. If true this will be a huge deal for families who have wanted to allow their kids to use Duo without wanting them to have a phone number.

We will be testing creating an account using family link shortly and will let you know how it works out. Unfortunately with Google you never know if a new feature is an early roll-out, a test or a mistake, so if you’ve been waiting to set up Duo without a phone number we recommend you do it quickly, just in case.