Google Duo v27 Confirms Support for Multiple Devices with a Linked Google Account

Google Duo, one of Google’s latest video calling apps, launched in 2016. It’s pre-installed on some Android devices, and its popularity has gradually grown over the years.

The difference between Duo and other Google chat apps, like Hangouts, is that Duo accounts are attached to a phone number rather than an email address — you can’t register more than one device to a Duo account, similar to messaging apps like WhatsApp. While Hangouts allows you to make and receive calls on multiple devices, Duo doesn’t have that functionality.

Previous Google Duo APKs have shown that support for Google account linking, which would allow you to sign up for Duo with an email address instead of a phone number, is coming. We did an APK teardown of Google Duo v27, and it confirms that support for multiple devices in Duo is actively in the works.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by Google in a future build.

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Support for multiple devices

<string name="linked_gaia_account_found_details">"If '%s' belongs to you, sign in to use Duo on multiple devices. Or skip if you prefer to use Duo only on this device. To add devices, sign into your Google Account at any time."</string>
<string name="linked_gaia_account_found_skip">Skip</string>
<string name="linked_gaia_account_found_title">We found a Google Account associated with this number.</string>

The strings in the APK show that Google is preparing to add multi-device support. When the feature goes live, you’ll be able to sign into your Google account on multiple devices and enjoy Duo call functionality on all of them.

Block sender notification

<string name="notification_cta_block_sender">Block</string>

This string shows that Duo may soon add a notification that blocks calls from particular senders.

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Although support for multiple devices hasn’t gone live yet in Google Duo, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Google launch the feature in the coming weeks and months. It’ll probably be included as part of the Google account linking feature, and when it arrives, it’ll help Duo achieve feature parity with Google’s older messaging apps.

What are your thoughts regarding multiple device support in Google Duo? Let us know in the comments. You can also check out other APK teardowns by searching the APK teardown tag.

Google Duo (Free, Google Play) →

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