Google brought back Duo (kind of) because its Meet transition is so confusing

Google’s plan to consolidate its communication providers into Meet was presupposed to (lastly) make issues less complicated and extra easy. It was meant to result in some sense and order for a corporation that has at all times overthought these items and made it confusing — to a really spectacular diploma. Earlier this month, the corporate rebranded its Duo video chat app as Meet and brought over Meet’s options. That left the unique, to-be-phased-out Meet app with a brand new “Meet (Authentic)” title. It additionally made for an all-time nice headline.

However apparently, not all clients have been proud of Duo’s sudden identification change. With the most recent replace to the Meet app for Android, Google has brought back the unique Duo icon and title as a separate shortcut that seems within the app launcher. Tapping on Duo opens Google Meet. So that you’ve now received two methods of accessing the identical software.

Google instructed 9to5Google and Droid Life that it made this transfer deliberately so that customers would be capable to launch Meet by trying to find “Duo,” similar to that they had finished earlier than it was rebranded. However the truth that this was even mandatory once more factors to an organization that has misplaced the thread on technique round these providers.

The Duo shortcut could be useful to ease the transition, but it surely additionally opens the door to extra confusion — particularly when Google itself is telling everybody to “search for the Meet title and icon as your one app for video calling and conferences.” That’s not precisely the case anymore, now is it? We’re back to 2 icons and two names for a similar app. And when you open up the multitasking view after launching Meet by way of the Duo shortcut, you’ll see Duo’s icon up high like so:

Screenshot by Chris Welch / The Verge

Nice job, everybody. No notes. Sometime we’ll find yourself with simply Messages, Google Chat, and Google Meet in spite of everything of this — sadly, with out the clear, easy FaceTime various that Duo as soon as was — however the street there is proving fairly convoluted.

I’m actually glad it’s Friday.