As Google has shifted its focus towards Google Meet in recent times, Google Duo, the company’s other video conferencing service, has been feeling a bit neglected. We have seen Google slowly bringing over some of Duo’s features to Meet. Earlier this month, Google added all filters and effects of Google Duo to Meet. We have also been hearing rumors that Google might eventually phase out Duo in favor of Meet. Only time will tell whether Meet will replace Duo, but Google is continuing to improve the service with new additions in the meantime.

Google is rolling out a new update (via Android Police) to the Google Duo app, which brings a simpler home screen UI. The new redesign introduces a “New Call” button on the home screen, which will allow users to start a new call, create a group, see groups and contacts lists and call Google Home devices.

As part of this change, some features have been relocated. For example, the ability to create new groups has been moved under the “New Call” button — earlier, it had a dedicated button on the home screen. Similarly, existing groups and contacts are now discoverable from the search bar and the new calling button. Overall, the new UI makes the home screen less cluttered. It also makes things easier to discover by making important features accessible from a single entry point.

Google says it will be rolling out the new UI to Google Duo users “over the next few weeks.” Apart from a few reports, we haven’t spotted the new UI being rolled out widely. It wasn’t available on any of my Android phones running the Google Duo app version 144.0.381755138.duo.android_20210627.13_p0.s.

Screenshot courtesy: XDA Recognized Developer luca020400.