Google Duo is a video chat service developed by Google. The service is available on Android and iOS platforms, as well as in the browser. Google has made it possible to make Duo calls online without having to tie a phone number.
What’s interesting is that Google has made this change without announcing it. As mentioned above, according to Android Police, the service now allows you to make and receive calls without tying your phone number to your account.
How does Google Duo work with G-Suite account and what issues you can face when it comes to use it without phone
Note that this doesn’t fully work with G-Suite accounts. G Suite if you don’t know is a rebranding of Google Workspace. Google Workspace is a suite of tools, software, and products for cloud computing, productivity, and collaboration developed and sold by Google.
The thing is, at the moment you can make calls if you have a G-Suite account, but you can’t receive incoming calls.
How to use Google Duo if you have standard account without phone
If you have a standard Google account, in order to use Google Duo, do the following:
- First, follow the link to duo.google.com.
- Then log into your account without linking your phone number. Even if the system asks you to add a number to your account, ignore the request and keep going.
- When you ignore the number tethering, you’ll go to Duo’s main site, where you can find your existing contacts for audio and video calls.
If you’ve done everything correctly, you’ll be able to use this chat without any problems.
For those who’re wondering what principle, you can make calls without tying your phone number, it works like this: you call from a standard Google Duo account to an email address. Accordingly, if they call you, they’re also guided by the attached to your account email.
The biggest stumbling block is that these email-only Duo accounts that don’t have a phone number don’t show up in your contacts list, and you can’t search for them.
You can only call them if they appear in your contact list or in your notification list if you’ve called them recently.
Note that if you use a Duo account with only your email linked, you’ll be pestered with alerts, pop-ups prompting you to add your phone number to make it easier for your friends and family to find you.
If you use a G-Suite account, you’ll have to link your phone number to continue.
How Google improves Google Duo, example
You might also be interested in the fact that Google cares about its product. They’re constantly improving their product and adding new features to it. Not long ago, Google added another new feature to Duo – reactions in video messages.
Google’s new Reaction feature offers the ability to quickly respond to incoming video messages. For example, if a friend sends you a short video, and you want to reply that it’s funny, you can quickly tap the reaction button and select a laughing emoji.
Reactions like this aren’t unique and are already present on other platforms. For example, you can find a similar feature on Instagram or Snapchat.
These apps allow users to respond to stories with a quick swipe upward, which opens up a collection of emoji reactions. Facebook has a similar feature with reactions to posts.
Google Duo currently has eight emojis to react to a video message. After selecting a reaction, the user who sent the video message is notified by all the recipients who sent the reaction. If it’s a group message, all users can see the reactions of other group members.
