Citing the popularity and performance of Google Duo in India, OnePlus has announced it’ll be adding a deeper integration of Google’s video-calling app in its next Oxygen OS update. The entire portfolio of supported devices from OnePlus, spanning the OnePlus 6 and 6T, OnePlus 5 and 5T, and eventually the OnePlus 3 and 3T, when those phones get Android Pie, will benefit from being able to treat Duo as essentially the default video calling service. OnePlus is integrating Duo calls into the dial pad, call logs, contacts, and messaging of its software, making Duo much more accessible and ubiquitous than merely shipping phones with the app preloaded, as a majority of Android vendors already do.
Duo has shown itself to have the highest call quality in research OnePlus carried out with its Indian users, which agrees with Google’s marketing on the matter as well. The app has certainly found a receptive audience in the world’s second most populous country, in spite of having to do battle with the global juggernaut that is WhatsApp. Now two and a half years old, Google Duo launched alongside Google Allo, yet another of Google’s very many failed chat apps. But Duo has survived and even prospered, with Google investing in cash incentives for users in India, Indonedia, and the Philippines, and also creating tailored Duo ads for the Indian market.
The present OnePlus endorsement and integration marks a combination of two popular brands, and it underscores OnePlus’ established pragmatic approach of not trying to invent its own version of a service that already exists and is being actively used by its customers.
This article is from The Verge
