Google has announced new features for its Duo app, specifically aimed at helping you stay in touch with your loved ones. These include kid-friendly video chat features, special filters, and group video calling for the web (coming soon).
Stay connected: be together in the moment with Google Duo
New: Family Mode brings doodling and fun filters to your Duo conversations, so kids can play while staying connected to people like grandparents. Hang up and mute buttons are hidden to help kids stay in the chat. Google also points out that conversations with Family Mode are still end-to-end encrypted for privacy.
Moms Matter: Google is working on adding fun filters to the regular, non-family mode, too, like this first one for Mother's Day. Whether you want to have a full conversation with your mom while dressed as a vase of flowers is up to you, but it's a start.
Coming soon: If you use Duo on the web, you’ll be happy to hear that group chats are coming to the app-free version, with a new layout to help you see more people at once. It’ll be rolling out as a preview on Chrome first. There’ll also be a new way to invite anyone with a Google account to join your chat with a simple link.
