Google is merging its two messaging apps, Meet and Duo. Left standing will be Google Meet, and Duo will be rolled in.. although, on mobile, Duo will become the primary app, renamed Google Meet.
I did want to highlight Microsoft’s investment in collaboration apps, too – at Build last week, the company focused on enhanced features within this space, including task management, video conferencing, and messaging.
Microsoft also rolled together its existing identity and access services and announced a new decentralized ID one under the product name Microsoft Entra. The three parts:
- Microsoft Azure Active Directory (existing identity and access management service)
- Permissions Management (rename of Microsoft’s acquisition of Cloud Knox Security, a “cloud infrastructure and entitlement management” service for detecting human and machine identities and activities) and
- Verified ID (a new decentralized identity product to come).
Being so focused on the work layer, changes in these collaboration apps will be increasingly important. Where before operating system changes would be significant, this is the new space of interest.
I highlighted Microsoft’s investment in digital identity as I consider it an underdeveloped and badly needed space. As the previous story highlights, if privacy is coming – then control over digital identity is the partner in crime to data privacy.