Since the start of the pandemic, humans of the world have turned to various video calling applications to stay in touch with their loved ones. While professionals have opted for the likes of Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet, casual users have stayed true to popular video calling apps, such as Google Duo, Skype, and WhatsApp.

Google, which has two leading products in the mix — Meet and Duo — has continued to work on them, trying to make the pair as attractive as possible. Today, we’ll take a look at one such highly-anticipated addition to Google Duo — option to add people to group chat using an invite link — and tell you how to make the most of it.

Related: Google Meet vs Google Duo

How to add anyone to a group chat?

Google Duo recently bumped up the group chat participants’ limit from eight to 12, allowing 50% more users to connect at the same time. However, to start a group call, users had to create a group with intended participants beforehand, meaning there was hardly any room for surprise additions.

After reflecting on the inconvenience for quite some time, Google has finally decided to give users the option of adding participants only using an invite link.

To do so, first, you’ll just need to create a group consisting of at least one person. After you do, you’ll see the group invite link right on the first screen. Simply copy the link and send it to the person you intend to add.

Once they click on the link, they’ll get the option of viewing the group participants and join the group chat session.

Additionally, you could also invite a person when a group call is underway. To do so, simply tap on the three-dot button at the bottom-right corner of the app and hit ‘Share link.’

Requirements and availability

The feature we’re discussing today was first announced in May 2020, but Google wasn’t ready to roll it out to the public at the time. And even now that it’s finally hit the market, it’s still not released for every Duo user on the planet.

Like most new products and features, Google is rolling out this new feature for Duo in an incremental fashion, meaning it’s not available for all regions and users but will be over the next few weeks.

No web support

Google Duo will get the option of web video calling soon enough, but today is not that day. Google has reserved the new feature — link sharing to invite — to the mobile applications only for now, but could roll out to the web client in the next month or so.

App version

As always, Duo users would need to update their app to the latest version if they want to make the most of this feature. Google has clarified that link invite is available only for app version v89 and above.

Images by: Android Police