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Alphabet (GOOGL) Expands Google Duo Reach With Latest Update

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Reportedly, Alphabet’s (GOOGL - Free Report) division Google has introduced home screen redesign of video calling software, Google Duo.

The redesigned user interface shows contacts in a new format and includes a “New Call” floating action option.

The “New Call” button lets users start a new call, create a group, and see groups, contact lists as well as call assistant “Home” device such as Google Nest smart speaker.

Further, the redesign lets users click on the Message button in the contact or group option for sending messages.

The new update will soon be available to users.

With the latest move, the company strives to deliver an enhanced experience to Google Duo users, which in turn is likely to boost the software’s adoption rate.

Strengthening Video Communication Offerings

The latest move bodes well for the company’s growing efforts toward bolstering offerings of video communication tools.

Apart from the latest effort, Google launched a new video codec technology to improve video call quality and reliability of Google Duo. It also added a new feature, by which users can click photos during video calling.

In addition to Google Duo, the company is also gaining from the growing adoption of its video conferencing software called Google Meet amid the pandemic. The introduction of new updates on Google Meet including an Autozoom feature for Google Workspace users to offer better video framing remains noteworthy.

We believe all these endeavors are expected to aid Google in rapidly penetrating into the booming video conferencing market, which is significantly growing amid the pandemic. Increasing demand for visual communication softwares due to growing work and learn from home trend owing to social distancing norms is driving growth of this market.

According to a report by Fortune Business Insights, this market size was $5.77 billion in 2020. The market is expected to hit $12.99 billion in 2028 from $6.28 billion in 2021, witnessing a CAGR of 10.9% between 2021 and 2028.

Currently, Googles’ parent Alphabet carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Growing Competition in Video Conferencing Space

Given the upbeat scenario in the video conferencing market, not only Google but also other players including Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) , Facebook , Zoom Video Communications (ZM - Free Report) , Tencent-owned WeChat, Cisco and others are making strong efforts to bolster their presence therein.

Recently, Microsoft Teams announced that it will introduce a new feature, which will auto-suggest the most relevant search results across chats, files, people and other content stored or shared in the app.

Meanwhile, Facebook-owned WhatsApp announced that it will launch new features. The introduction of 'view once' disappearing photo and video feature remains noteworthy.

Facebook’s recent launch of Soundmojis on its high-quality video chatting software, Facebook Messenger, also remains noteworthy.

Further, Zoom’s efforts to provide an enterprise experience including seamless training, technical support, meetings, cross-platform messaging and file sharing are worth mentioning.


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