Lots of people are still quarantining at home to fight the coronavirus pandemic, and as a result, they're making way more video calls than before so they can stay in contact with friends and family. We've seen companies improving their video calling products lately as a result, and today Google announced some new features for Duo.
Google Duo will soon support group video calls on the web. This feature will begin rolling out in the coming weeks, starting as a preview in Chrome. It'll bring with it a new layout to help you see more people at the same time.
Duo will also allow you to invite anyone with a Google account to join your group video call using just a link.
In addition to rolling out major new functionality, Google is working to make Duo video calls a bit more fun. A new family mode will let you doodle on video calls and add fun effects and masks that'll turn you into things like astronauts and cats. These masks and effects are also being added to one-on-one video calls on Android and iOS starting this week.
To enable family mode, just start a video call, tap the menu icon, and then tap "Family". Google says that Duo will hide the mute and hang-up buttons when family mode is enabled so that you don't accidentally perform those actions while you're doodling.