It's been a while since the Google Duo app received a new feature, with Google giving most of its focus and attention to Meet as of late. But that dry spell may soon come to an end. In our recent teardown of the Google Duo app, we have learned about an upcoming feature called Breakout rooms.
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 the developers in a future build.
Google Duo recently picked up an update to version 159.0.425779378, and within the APK, we have uncovered some new strings related to the Breakout rooms feature. Breakout rooms refer to the ability to divide people into small groups. It's is a very handy feature when hosting large meetings. For example, teachers can use Breakout rooms in online classes to divide students into small groups for collaboration on projects, group discussions, etc. Most video conferencing services, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet, offer Breakout rooms. And it appears the Google Duo app will be the next to receive this functionality.
The following strings suggest Google Duo will allow hosts to create breakout rooms.
<string name="breakout_ended_dialog_title">Breakout room has ended</string>
<string name="breakouts_active">Breakout rooms are in session</string>
<string name="breakouts_in_session_banner_text">Breakout rooms are in session</string>
Participants will see an onscreen dialogue when "Breakout rooms are in session" and when "Breakout room has ended."
Meanwhile, we have also uncovered some new strings which suggest that Google Duo may add the ability to live stream and record a video meeting.
<string name="broadcast_active">This meeting is being streamed</string>
<string name="broadcast_active_prejoin_text">This meeting is being streamed</string>
<string name="broadcast_and_recording_active">This meeting is being streamed and recorded</string>
<string name="broadcast_and_recording_active_prejoin_text">This meeting is being streamed and recorded</string>
<string name="broadcast_initializing_content_description">Live stream will start soon</string>
<string name="broadcast_initiated">This meeting is being streamed</string>
<string name="broadcast_initiated_by_participant">{PARTICIPANT_NAME} has started streaming</string>
<string name="broadcast_live_content_description">This meeting is being streamed</string>
<string name="broadcast_live_indicator_text">LIVE</string>
<string name="broadcast_stopped">Streaming has stopped</string>
Google Duo will show a persistent message that "This meeting is being streamed and recorded." It will also display the name of the participant who initiated the streaming.
Breakout rooms and the ability to live stream and record meetings are still in development and haven't been rolled out to Google Duo users yet. We'll keep an eye out and let you know if we learn anything new about these features.