Google’s Duo application now allows you to add up to seven more people for a total of eight people in a video call, so if you’ve always been waiting to take duo and turn it into a large party between you and seven of your closest friends, now’s finally the time.
The addition of increasing the size limit on group video calls comes after the ability to actually make a group video call in the first place which was added at the beginning of this month, with Duo’s tech lead Justin Uberti tweeting that group calls were being rolled out to a small handful of countries, then expanding on those countries by adding the US and a few more.
Group video calls are nothing new from a technological advancement standpoint as they’ve been available through other services and apps prior to now, but the initiative to roll them out to Duo showcases that Google still has the intent of improving Duo in as many ways as it can, starting with the capability for people to use the app to talk to more of their friends and loved ones simultaneously.
Google seems to have already made this feature live for most or all users in the supported countries, so if you use Duo and wanted to give it a try you should be able to test it out without having to update the application.
It’s worth keeping in mind that it still doesn’t appear you can add any new users to a call once the session has already started, so you’ll probably want to make sure that you add everyone you want to be included before the call begins.
Soon you may even be able to complete these group video calls via your desktop’s web browser as Google is still reportedly working on a desktop version of Duo for those who may want to participate in a call via their PC instead of through the phone.
There hasn’t been any word on progress of this particular venture though since late January of this year, so for the time being you’ll have to stick with using Duo from your mobile device.
If you’ve never used Duo before or if you’ve simply not used the group calling feature, everything is pretty straightforward. You simply open up the application and towards the top of the list of contacts will be a big button that allows you to create a group.
From there all you have to do is check the boxes next to the names of people you want to join in, up to seven since you’re counted as the eighth user, and then tap done to begin. A total of eight users is still fairly small if you’re used to big conference call meetings with many users, but it’s worth remembering that Duo is primarily consumer-focused and is not designed to be for business.
So while Google may add the capability to increase the number of users from the current eight, it may not ever be likely to get massive group calls going through this particular app.