Video chat apps are great at connecting friends and family across the globe and
especially in times like these where social distancing is becoming the new
normal, they help give you a little bit of that social interaction back. So in
this video I'm going to go over two popular free video chat apps: Google Duo
and Google Hangouts. I'm going to show you how to use them, go
over their core features and when you may want to use one over the other. Let's
dive in. To get started with either google duo or Google Hangouts you'll
want to make sure that you have a Google account setup. To do that just go to
google.com, click sign in, and then follow the steps to set up your account. Now if
you're simply trying to have a conversation with 12 people or less
including yourself and you don't need the ability to share your screen on
desktop or to have a chat in the same window as your video chat, then I think
Google Duo is going to be the way to go for you. Now Google Duo is available on
lots of different platforms it's available on multiple different types of
browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari and it's also available on different
mobile platforms including iOS and Android, and it's also available on some
Google Assistant smart displays like the Nest Hub Max. To get started on a
mobile device like Android or iOS, download the Duo app from the App Store
or the Google Play Store. On a computer you can use the web version of Duo
through Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, and the best part is that you don't have to
download an app or an extension to use it, at least not in Chrome which is the
browser that I use. Google Duo uses your Google contacts to allow you to call
others if you're using an iPhone, Duo will use the contacts you have on your
phone. If you select a contact that doesn't currently have Duo downloaded,
you'll see a screen where you can invite this contact to Duo through a text
message. When you tap on a contact that does have Google Duo downloaded ,you'll
see a different screen with a few options: voice call, video call, and
message. The message option allows you to record a video message and send it to
your contact. You also have options to use filters and
effects here as well and you can also just leave a note or voice message in
case you don't want to be on camera. The actual interface of Google Duo is very
simple, you have buttons to end the call, mute your microphone, or your camera, and
there are more options as well. On the phone app you can click the three dots
and then you'll see you have options for Auto-framing, portrait, low-light, and
effects where you can use fun effects that will overlay your current video.
With Google Duo, if you want to have a call with multiple people you can do
this by setting up a group within the app. Now do you note that groups have a
maximum capacity of 12 people including yourself. To create a group in the app
you scroll the contacts page up a bit and then hit create a group then select
all of the people that you want to be in the group then hit done, give the group a
name and then click start, to start a video call or leave a video message for
the group. If you've been added to a group that you don't want to be a part
of, click the three dots and then you'll be able to leave the group. Duo also has
a knock knock feature so when you receive a call you actually see the
video of the person calling you before you pick up the call. Oh and another
thing to keep in mind with duo is that all Duo calls are end-to-end
encrypted, so your conversation stays between you and the people you're
calling. Another cool feature with Duo is the ability to call your Google Home
devices. When you look through your contacts in Duo's mobile app you'll see
a button where you can call your Google Home devices like your Nest Hub, Nest Mini
or other smart speakers in your house. This is useful for when you're out
of the house and you need to get ahold of someone back home, especially if your
home is like mine where there's at least one Google Assistant speaker in every room. When
you click that button, every device in your residence will ring, so keep that in
mind when you want to play a prank on someone and startle them in the middle
of the night. Alright, so we've gone through all of the main features of Duo
and now I want to talk about Hangouts. Now I know at this point you may be
thinking, wait a minute, Duo does everything I need, why would I
even need to think about Google Hangouts? I know, I thought the exact
same thing when I was doing the research for this video, but after doing further
research I think there are some circumstances where you would want to
use Hangouts over Duo and the first one is if you want to have a video call
with more than 12 people including yourself. Hangouts currently has a limit
of 25 people on a video call and the second scenario where I think you would
want to use hangouts over Duo is if you want a chat service built-in with the
video and audio call service. Currently Duo does not have a chat service
available with it. It is only videos and calls where Hangouts actually has a
pretty nifty chat service built right in. Hangouts allows you to chat with up to a
150 people in a group and it allows you to quickly jump into a
video or voice call from your chat. You also have the ability to set a status
and can invite people to hangouts either through their email or their phone
number. You can also make yourself visible on Hangouts to anyone with your
phone number or email. Another big difference with Hangouts is that it lets
you chat while your video session is going on you have the ability to share
your screen with Hangouts as well which is especially useful for presenting to a
group or helping troubleshoot an issue a family member is having with their
computer. Like Duo, Hangouts is available on a wide variety of devices including
iOS and Android phones, tablets, and various computers through the browser.
Note that Hangouts is not supported on Google Assistant displays though and
from what I could find, the service is not end-to-end encrypted like Duo. When
you start up Hangouts on mobile you can use the plus button at the bottom right
hand corner to start a new conversation or a video call and on desktop you have
similar options as well. You can actually start a video call on desktop without
calling anyone and then invite them to join your call by email or through a
link that you can share with them. Hangouts video call features are similar
to Duo's. You have buttons to end the call, turn your mic on and off, as well as your
camera, you can click the three dots and that's how you can get to the area where
you can share your screen on a desktop. One pointer for if you're on a Mac,
to share your screen make sure that you click on the screen that pops up and
then click share. Do note though that Hangouts does not have the auto framing
features and it doesn't have any fun crazy filters like google Duo does.
Alright, well that's it for our video on Google Duo and Google Hangouts. If you
found this video helpful and liked this video, hit that thumbs up button below
and subscribe to the channel to see more videos like this one. Also feel free to
share this video with any friends or family who may need a little bit of help
with video chatting. For 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder, thanks for watching.