Google inserts links to its Duo video chat app when users text about Zoom

The problem with depending on corporations to "not be evil" is that corporations change with successive generations of management, new owners, etc.

Some basic rules for when it's acceptable to read/interpret data that passes through a company's systems need to be codified into law.

Or just update privacy laws in the US for the computer age.

>Search is to Google what Windows was/is to Microsoft then, their core business, but all other efforts/products/services seemed fringy.

How did the rest of the story go, though? Microsoft now has a growing suite of great products that are no longer "fringe".

There's some middle ground between practices like this article and preventing companies from innovating in spaces outside their core business.

Yeah I did wonder this, part of why I posted it was it sounds too crazy to be true and I was hoping someone had a better explanation!

Right. Another thing is that it's not clear whether they're inserting an advertisement into the conversation in a way that's visible to the other person, or if they're only trying to bring up on-screen help for the local user. The former seems much, much more intrusive than the latter. I'd still like the option to turn off either of them, but I don't really consider Clippy-esque eagerness to be sinister as much as presumptuous and annoying.

This definitely is a features of the SMS app that comes with Android. Its the new AI features that offers hints and auto completions, so its just offering a suggestion based on Look rather than Zoom. largely #fakenews

"let's look at it" could be anything. this is an sms android app, the place where google does not mine your data (like gmail) for it to recommend duo it needs to know context, "join zoom" could be a trigger, but "let's look at it" would lead to to many false positives to be a real option.

This feels likely.

But, I really dislike how Google often gets a free pass (from the tech community) on these things, and frankly, I prefer the sensationalized reality over our more accurate one because it rightfully puts pressure on them to stop messing up so often.

How often does Google get to say "whoopsie daisy, our silly AI messed up again" before we need to start asking them serious questions like "why is there an AI making recommendations in the first place when those recommendations have such a high probability of preferring Google products"?

The problem with these types of arguments with soft algorithms like machine learning is that the answer probably lies somewhere in between in the most literal way (it has non-zero influence from many input features). Accepting this ambiguity is where companies like Google/FB can get a free pass by blaming the automated algorithm.

You could even create intentional situations where you know how the algorithm will behave because you know the data you are training on but still have the option to chalk up mistakes to 'accidental'.

Never forget.

Same here.

Don't forget that they deleted all Google+ data when they shut it down. And that was not a small service

And by doing that, piratically killed RSS. Sure, RSS is still around, but lots of sites dropped support and lots of users stopped using it.

plus one...

I think of it as a favor, made me realize RSS is better on its own.

I’m still feeling the pain from that. They built the best (for my use case) RSS reader, then completely shut it down. I wish companies would sometimes consider transitioning projects into the public space for the greater good. Look at what Microsoft has done with VSCode and the community editions.

As with most features, this could be part of an A/B Test which makes confirming it difficult.

As far as I can tell, that GIF is showing Duo video quality before and after using a new codec design to improve quality particularly over low-bandwidth connections.

Yeah, what I've decided is that they both must be duo and the left is the new codec and the right is the old codec? They really should label that because it looks like "everyone else" vs "Google Duo" and what looks like the Google Duo looks like shit. Assuming that's what's going on.

But even then if both sides are Duo it looks like "we took your Duo and made it ugly"

Yeah, the gif is terrible... the AV1 side is on the left.... https://www.blog.google/products/duo/4-new-google-duo-featur...

The US has such lax anti-competition laws and enforcement, even if it was I highly doubt they'd ever even consider Google (Or Apple) in an anti-trust position let alone enforce it. The EU has done a little more here, but everyone online queues up to criticize them every time they do anything to try and protect consumers, so c'est la vie.

The textbook anti-competition case, US v. Microsoft, was thrown out at the end of the day and settled. There is effectively no anti-competition oversight in the US.

The trigger was the "let's look at this" phrase, not the "Join zoom" phrase. This is similar to when you say "where are you": it prompts the other person to share location (also on Android).

This article is misleading.

Looks to me like this is one of the google assistant suggestions. If you say "Let's go grab lunch", it'll show you "Find restaurants nearby." using Google maps, etc...

If it is that, it's a local suggestion (one that isn't a link sent to the other user, just suggested to you) in the same way they do the "quick responses" thing.

Duo is cross platform.

I don’t know that they necessarily do based on the article? Link might lead to a setup page.

Duo maintains a contacts list. It doesn't seem too big of a leap to assume Messages queries Duo to see if both parties have the app installed. Or, as others have suggested, it may take them to an app installation page on either the Play Store or App Store.

Same as any other messenger app, by grabbing your contact list. When you open Duo it will show you a list of your contacts that are duo-able.