Google releases video chat app Duo to take on FaceTime and Skype

Google has launched a new video chat app called Duo in the segment currently dominated by the likes of Apple's FaceTime, Microsoft's Skype and Facebook's Messenger.

The new app originally announced in May is available for both the iPhone and Android phones and isn’t much different from the other video app services, except that it gives users a glimpse at who's making the call, helping people decide whether to answer or not.

Google calls this feature "Knock Knock," i.e. when you receive a call on Android (sorry, it doesn't work on the iPhone), your entire screen starts showing the live video from your caller before you even answer. It lets you see who's calling — and lets the caller give facial expression to try to induce you to answer.

Though Duo is simpler than FaceTime and far simpler than Google's own Hangouts app, which the company says will now be more focused on business and enterprise users, it leaves out on a number of features you might find in other video-calling apps. Chief among them is that Duo can't make conference calls; it's meant only for one-to-one calling. Google also decided against making desktop apps for Duo or Allo.

"We forced ourselves to think exclusively about the phone and design for the phone," says Nick Fox, Google VP of communications products. "The desktop experience is something we may build over time. But if you look around the world at the billions of people that are connected to the internet, the vast majority have one device, and that device is a phone. So it was critical for us to really nail that use case."

Calls are encrypted and like FaceTime on iOS, Duo only requires a person's phone number to connect. Google's been offering video calling through Hangouts since 2013, but the company's now tailoring that service for business meetings and it won't plug into the new video chat service.Duo is being billed as a simpler, more reliable way to see friends and family as you talk to them.

In the coming months, Google is also preparing to unveil a new messaging app called Allo - the second of the two apps Google announced at its developer conference this past May- featuring a robotic assistant that will suggest automated responses to texts.That includes commenting on pictures sent by friends, thanks to its use of image recognition algorithms. Allo can be used to find information, play media and carry out tasks via a chat between the user and the software.