Millions of Google users told major app is shutting down for good as September deadline for ‘permanent closure' revealed
Customers have a few short months to prepare for the change
GOOG-BYE Millions of Google users told major app is shutting down for good as September deadline for 'permanent closure' revealed
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
GOOGLE users have been notified that a major app will be shutting down for good by September.
Google Duo was a video and audio calling app, similar to Apple's FaceTime, Facebook's WhatsApp or Messenger and Microsoft's Skype.
Sign up for Scottish Sun
newsletter
Sign up
1
Google Duo will be shutting down by September
Credit: Alamy
It merged with Meet in 2022 to create one entity for video calls but will soon be removed.
While the Google Duo brand officially ended in 2022, some of its features were still used under the 'Legacy calls' section in Google Meet.
The app for the latter is now showing a banner that reads, 'Meet calling will replace legacy (Duo) calling in September 2025.'
Meet calls offer a superior video call experience compared to legacy Duo calls, with features like live captions, screen sharing, raise your hand, stackable effects, cloud encryption, and more.
As part of the transition, some legacy Duo features won't be available in Meet.
This includes Family Mode, Moments, and Knock Knock.
AMAZON, AMAZ-OFF
It comes after news that Amazon is to shut down an app that's been used by millions of people.
There are major downsides for affected users – and you might even be owed a big refund.
Millions of people using the Amazon Appstore will be cut off in mid-August.
The closure affects anyone using the app on Android phones. Over 200 million people use the Amazon Appstore, around 1% of which come via Android gadgets.
Google reveals 'Advanced Protection' for VIPs – and you can use it too
An Amazon spokesperson told The Sun: "We've decided to discontinue the Amazon Appstore on Android to focus our efforts on the Appstore experience on our own devices, as that's where the overwhelming majority of our customers currently engage with it."
Amazon's Appstore is a rival to the default Google Play Store, letting you download apps and games. It launched on Android all the way back in March 2011.
But on August 20, the Amazon Appstore will close – and any apps downloaded from it will no longer receive updates.
That means support will end for all apps you've downloaded via the Amazon Appstore.
They may become buggy or stop work entirely, and won't be able to receive any important security fixes either.
In an FAQ, Amazon warned that these apps "will not be guaranteed to operate on Android devices".
Amazon has already begun killing the Appstore off by blocking developers from uploading new apps to it.
That change kicked in on February 20 this year.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
4 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Major warning issued to people using kit like Amazon Fire Sticks illegally
There are an estimated 17 million people in Europe using pirated TV services. Estimates of the cost vary between £900million and £21billion a year. A single pirate stream of a high-profile football match could have tens of thousands of viewers Illegal streams of live sport via kit like Amazon's £25 Fire Stick are used by criminals to steal credit card details and infect users' devices with malware. A new report by Enders Analysis says pirated video was an 'enticing store front' used by crooks and accused big tech of not doing enough to tackle 'industrial scale theft'. It found that illegal streams are now used by one in eight people aged 16 to 24 and called combating it a 'formidable challenge'. It accused big tech firms of 'a combination of ambivalence and inertia' by failing to shore up security while 'simultaneously steering consumers to illegal services'. The report described three things that allow piracy to flourish. The first is 'opportunistic' restreaming of live events via social media, while the second uses streaming services to implant malware to the viewer's device. The report said: 'Pirated services are part of sustained efforts, mostly by organised crime, to gain access to consumer data and online identity, infect devices with malware and enrich their criminal enterprises.' The third is paid-for pirate TV via devices like the Fire Stick, which 'masquerade as legitimate operators' There are an estimated 17 million people in Europe using pirated TV services. Estimates of the cost vary between £900million and £21billion a year. A single pirate stream of a high-profile football match could have tens of thousands of viewers. Amazon's Fire TV Stick is branded a 'piracy enabler' in the report. The device, which plugs into a TV and allows access to thousands of legitimate services, is also being used to illegally stream big events. Enders found that viewers do not need to 'search the darkest corners of the web' as services are 'openly marketed and promoted'. Amazon said it had made changes to Fire TV to make it harder to stream pirated content and warns customers against 'sideloaded apps '. A spokesman said: 'We remain vigilant in our efforts to combat piracy and protect customers from the risks associated with pirated content, which includes prohibiting apps that infringe upon the rights of third parties in our Appstore, and warning customers of the risks associated with installing or using apps from unknown sources.' Nick Herm, Sky Group COO, said: 'It's a serious issue for anyone who invests in creating and delivering world-class content. We'd like to see faster, more joined-up action from major tech platforms and government.'
Scottish Sun
6 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Twitter down updates: Users battle to load X as tens of thousands report outage on Elon Musk's platform
Chaos as tweets vanish, feeds freeze, and users demand answers from X MUSK BE KIDDING Twitter down updates: Users battle to load X as tens of thousands report outage on Elon Musk's platform Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) FRUSTRATED users are struggling to load X as a major outage hits Elon Musk's social media platform, leaving tens of thousands unable to access their feeds. The issue appears to be widespread, with users across the US and beyond reporting problems with the app and website. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 The cause of the outage is not yet known, and X has not yet issued a statement Credit: Getty 2 Problems were reported across different devices, including iPhones, Android phones, and desktop browsers Credit: Getty X, formerly known as Twitter, began experiencing issues around 9:20pm according to outage-tracking site DownDetector. The platform, which allows users to share short-form messages known as tweets, has been hit by more than 35,000 outage reports in the last 24 hours. One frustrated user wrote: 'Here we go again.' Another said: 'Having issues on PC.' A third added: 'Posts keep disappearing for no good reason now!' Problems were reported across different devices, including iPhones, Android phones, and desktop browsers, with users experiencing disappearing posts and connection errors. The cause of the outage is not yet known, and X has not yet issued a statement. More to follow... For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos. Like us on Facebook at TheSunUS and follow us on X at @TheUSSun
Reuters
7 hours ago
- Reuters
Exclusive: Anthropic hits $3 billion in annualized revenue on business demand for AI
SAN FRANCISCO, May 30 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence developer Anthropic is making about $3 billion in annualized revenue, according to two sources familiar with the matter, in an early validation of generative AI use in the business world. The milestone, which projects the company's current sales over the course of a year, is a significant jump from December 2024 when the metric was nearly $1 billion, the sources said. The figure crossed $2 billion around the end of March, and at May's end it hit $3 billion, one of the sources said. While consumers have embraced rival OpenAI's ChatGPT, a number of enterprises have limited their rollouts to experimentation, despite board-level interest in AI. Anthropic's revenue surge, largely from selling AI models as a service to other companies, is a data point showing how business demand is growing, one of the sources said. A key driver is code generation. The San Francisco-based startup, backed by Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab and (AMZN.O), opens new tab, is famous for AI that excels at computer programming. Products in the so-called codegen space have experienced major growth and adoption in recent months, often drawing on Anthropic's models. This demand is setting Anthropic apart among software-as-a-service vendors. Its single-quarter revenue increases would count Anthropic as the fastest-growing SaaS company that at least one venture capitalist has ever seen. "We've looked at the IPOs of over 200 public software companies, and this growth rate has never happened," said Meritech General Partner Alex Clayton, who is not an Anthropic investor and has no inside knowledge of its sales. He cautioned that these comparisons are not fully precise, since Anthropic also has consumer revenue via subscriptions to its Claude chatbot. Still, by contrast, publicly traded SaaS company Snowflake took six quarters to go from $1 billion to $2 billion in such run-rate revenue, Clayton said. Anthropic competitor OpenAI has projected it will end 2025 with more than $12 billion in total revenue, up from $3.7 billion last year, three people familiar with the matter said. This total revenue is different from an estimated annualized figure like Anthropic's. Reuters could not determine this metric for OpenAI. The two rivals appear to be establishing their own swim lanes. While both offer enterprise and consumer products, OpenAI is shaping up to be a consumer-oriented company, and the majority of its revenue comes from subscriptions to its ChatGPT chatbot, OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar told Bloomberg late last year. OpenAI has not reported enterprise-specific revenue but said in May that paying seats for its ChatGPT enterprise product have grown to 3 million, from 2 million in February, and that T-Mobile (TMUS.O), opens new tab and Morgan Stanley (MS.N), opens new tab are among its enterprise customers. In the consumer race, Anthropic's Claude has seen less adoption than OpenAI. Claude's traffic, a proxy for consumer interest, was about 2% of ChatGPT's in April, according to Web analytics firm Similarweb. Anthropic, founded in 2021 by a team that departed OpenAI over differences in vision, closed a $3.5 billion fundraise earlier this year. That valued the company at $61.4 billion. OpenAI is currently valued at $300 billion.
