Social Distancing: Google Duo now supports upto 12 participants

Covid-19 has taken the world by storm and people are socially distancing themselves. The video calling services are, thus, growing more popular, now more than ever. In this crisis, Google Duo has expanded the number of people you can connect in the chat.

Last year, Google Duo updated the app to add upto eight people. With its competitor, Houseparty, getting highly popular, Google saw an opportunity to do one better. In this case, 4 better. The company's senior director, Sanaz Ahari, announced on Twitter about the updated version. She also mentioned that there is more to come and the feature will be effective from the date of the announcement. The app is auto-updated from server end to add this new function.

Sanaz Ahari on Twitter:

We are grateful that Duo is helping users see their loved ones all around the world. We recognize group calling is particularly critical right now. We have increased group calling from 8 participants to 12 effective today. More to come. #AllInThisTogether#COVID19

— Sanaz (@sanazahari) March 27, 2020

The company started with video call consisting of 4 participants and moved onto eight. People all over the world are looking to stay connected to their friends and Duo's latest feature is a good place for large groups. Google Duo also uses less data. The set up is fairly easy as it uses phone number. Google duo also allows Portrait Mode for certain devices. The one-to-one call on the browser is a bonus and the knock-knock feature is fun. It allows a small preview of the caller to the receiver. Google Duo also works fantastically in low light mode.

The company tends to take down social networking apps, (given what happened to Allo), but Duo is working fine. The 50% expansion is nothing short of a competitive relief amid the Covid-19 lockdowns.