Christ almighty, not another f-ing video chat app!

[dreamshark]

 So I decided to finally stop putting off making the pointless doctor appointment that Health Partners wants me to make in order to get my medication renewed and maybe some immunizations scheduled. I'm sure as hell not going in to the clinic in person for that, but it looks like you can now schedule a "video appointment" online. So I decided to try it, discovered that my favorite doctor has nothing available until Oct 7, then wondered why I was annoyed by that when I didn't really feel a need to talk to a doctor anyway. So I went ahead and scheduled a visit for Oct 7. At the very end of all this I was informed that now I need to set up some nonsense called Google Duo for the presumed video chat (which I hope to negotiate down to a phone chat as I did with the last one).

I clicked on the link, which opened in my Windows web browser and then immediately demanded a phone number. WTF? Why do I need to give you a phone number when I am not using a phone? What makes you think I even own a phone? So I looked up Google Duo and discovered that it was some nonsense invented for Android phones so they wouldn't feel so inferior to Apple with its Facetime, then extended to run on iPhones, and finally to run in a web browser. I also discovered that Google Duo debuted with a fantastic new feature called "Knock Knock" that allowed your callers to SEE YOU BEFORE THE CALL WAS EVEN ESTABLISHED. This horrifying feature could apparently be disabled, but ON was the default. Seriously? I am now totally skeeved out. But I wasn't planning to put it on my phone anyway, so back to "Why should I give you my phone number, Google?"

I did give Health Partners my cell phone # so they can call me (by voice) when the doctor wants to talk to me, but that's as far as I'm going with it. Has anybody ever tried this Google Duo thing, with or without Health Partners?

Comments

[redbird]

Yes, that is pointlessly obnoxious and insecure; "untrusted application/website on a machine that has my passwords and financial information" might be a lever to help get them to let you do this voice-only.

There are medical appointments where video instead of voice has advantages, but it doesn't sound like this is any of them.

[dreamshark]

It's not so much that this thing is any more untrustworthy than Zoom or Discord or Google Hangouts or any of the other communication tools I have set up on my computer. I just don't see why I need to set up YET ANOTHER one, especially one that seems so obscure and that explains itself so badly. Why not just use Zoom, like everybody else in the pandemic world? I don't really like Zoom, but I have at least used it before.

[quadong]

Duo predates Zoom, at least I heard of Duo years before I heard of Zoom. So my guess is they standardized on it a while back, and it's probably horribly difficult to change what they use.

Yes, letting the callee see the caller before they answer is a terrible idea, mostly because it's different from how all other calling works. ... Except I guess when you call on someone by showing up at their front door, and they have a peephole or something, which I guess is why it's called "knock knock". But who expects that when it's electronic? On the third hand, I seem to recall that it says clearly on the screen something like "the person you're calling can see you already", so it's not like you only find out later.

I briefly used Duo when it seemed to be a contender for the best thing around a few years ago. Since videoconferencing has been improving by leaps and bounds, it has often not been clear what the best option is, or whether it will keep being the best option.

[dreamshark]

"So my guess is they standardized on it a while back..."

Oh, it's not that. It's only since the pandemic started that they have offered a telemedicine option at all, and when I tried to set up an appointment with it back in May the website wasn't really working right yet and just led me in a big circle. So they went to a lot of trouble to set it up to use an obsolete technology based on cell phones and only grudgingly expanded to the computer world.

At least you have heard of it. I hadn't.

[pameladean]

I set up Google Duo, but when my doctor tries to get hold of me through it, she is always informed that I am "busy," whereupon she calls my cellphone. I haven't needed a video as opposed to voice appointment so far.

P.

[dreamshark]

Why is she always informed that you are "busy?"

[pameladean]

I have no idea. A wrong setting, a bug in Google Duo, who knows. It does absolve me from having to do video appointments.

[dreamshark]

Well, that's handy. Doesn't do much to increase my faith in this stupid app, though.

[mdlbear]

My wife has three different specialists along with her regular doctor; each of them uses a different videoconferencing app (and none of them are Zoom). None of which are supported on her phone, so I have them set up on mine.

[dreamshark]

Aieee! I love the way medical establishments coast along for years pretending technology doesn't exist at all, and when they finally implement something they make no effort at all to accommodate people who, say, don't own a smartphone. Or a computer. Or a car, for that matter (making it impossible to use a drive-up testing site).

[carbonel]

I had a Google Duo chat several months ago with someone from the sleep center, and it all went fine, just like a Zoom chat. I can't recall if the system asked for my phone number or not.

[jbru]

My dad initially asked me to install Google Duo in order to do video chat with my mom and him. I expect my brother set it up for them. So when I needed to do an appointment to get a prescription refilled with Health Partners, the Google Duo thing was already common for me. I turned off the "knock knock" feature right away because yes, weirdness there. Otherwise it seems like a FaceTime/Zoom/etc. knock-off that is fairly innocuous. I'm guessing "free" helped Health Partners decide on using it for medical appointments, but it makes me wonder how well they vetted the HIPAA implications.

[dreamshark]

So do you need the phone number to find their account even when they are running it on a computer? Or are they using a smartphone?

[jbru]

I use it on my phone, so that's tied to a phone number. My dad's account is as well, as I can "call" him at his regular cell number using Duo. And I know he's used his computer to call my phone. I don't think he's answered a call from me on his computer.