Google Duo Reaches 5 Billion Play Store Downloads

Google’s premier video calling app Duo has now surpassed the 5 billion download milestone over on the Play Store.

While the download figures have undoubtedly been bloated courtesy of global pandemic and the fact that Google Duo comes bundled with Android on millions of devices sold each year, the video calling app has become a mainstay in the “Top apps” sections of the Play Store. Recent bugs haven’t dulled the public appetite for the app it seems.

For a lot of devices that also use the Google Phone app, the ability to link with Duo to be used as the default video calling app could also provide an explanation for this huge download figure. Explanations aside, Duo is joining an exclusive club of first-party apps that have surpassed such a download figure (via Android Police).

Duo isn’t just a video calling app either, as it allows you to make voice calls on selected Smart Displays and Google’s own Nest Hub speakers. It’s a great way to keep in contact with your friend and family, whatever their platform, and is therefore a worthwhile download.

Google Duo reaches 5 billion downloads on the Play Store.

Confusingly, this is not Google’s only video calling service, as the conference-focused Meet launched some time before in 2017, while Duo launched back in 2019. However, Duo is a more consumer-focused option rather than the business-oriented Meet. Google had planned to merge Meet and Duo, but this merger collapsed late last year and it’s unclear what the future holds for Android’s default video calling app. Google Meet has been added to Gmail but lags behind Duo’s 5 billion download figure with the most recent milestone being the 100 million mark, which was hit almost two years ago.

We really hope that Google continues to develop and improve Duo, which is still a great video calling option that can be used across the iOS-Android divide even with the addition of Facetime support via a web browser.