Google Meet meets Duo Meet, with Meet in Duo but Duo isn’t going into Meet

In June, Google announced that it’s bringing the features of Meet into the Duo app — and that transformation begins today. Google isn’t technically getting rid of either app; Duo’s getting rebranded as Meet with the features from both apps, and Meet’s staying Meet.

Yes, it sounds pretty confusing, but by the end of this process, there will be just two apps: “Meet Original” (the standard Meet app that will eventually get phased out) and the new Meet that combines both Meet and Duo. The combined app will let you conduct both group and one-on-one calls as well as hold meetings.

If you already have Duo installed, you won’t have to do anything. Last month, Google pushed a Duo update that adds the features from Meet, and today, Google’s rolling out an update on iOS and Android that will change the Duo logo to the Meet icon. By September, anyone who downloads the Google Meet app will receive the new Meet / Duo combo. Google notes that duo.google.com will redirect to meet.google.com/calling over the next few months.

Now, if you’re a Meet user, you don’t have to do anything right now if you just want to keep using it as it has always existed without any additional perks from Duo. Google may eventually end support for the original Meet, so just keep that in mind if you wish to continue using the app as-is. Google says it will inform original Meet users when they “should migrate to the new app experience” but doesn’t specify when that will happen.

This change adds another layer of complexity to Google’s web of messaging apps but is a sign that Google’s consolidating the services it already has rather than just adding a new one. Earlier this year, Google announced that it would shut down Hangouts in November in favor of Google Chat. Google also ended third-party support for Google Talk (aka GChat) last month.