Google Duo accidentally sends out Indian Cricket team promo message to users worldwide

The ICC Cricket World Cup is underway, and while most Indians ought to be aware of it, Google Duo is strangely sending push notifications to users around the globe with ads from the Indian Cricket team.

Now, Google often celebrates events and special holidays with a special video message on Duo for users in a particular area. Hence, to commemorate the beginning of the Cricket World Cup, Google had planned to send out a video message from Indian Cricket team captain, Virat Kohli to all Duo users in India.

Anyone else get this random #duo message from @imVkohli? 🤷‍♀️#googleduo #ViratKohli pic.twitter.com/3COS3VxaeK

— Saeiral (@Rawr_b4_coffee) May 30, 2019

But as per a report by Android Police , Google likely messed up on their targetting of the message, causing users across the world to receive the video as a push notification at odd hours.

Clueless users hailing from US, Canada, Japan, Mexico, and New Zealand, who presumably had no idea about what was going on, took to Reddit and Twitter to ask Google about what the spam was all about.

What makes it worse is that users in India did not even receive the message.

Google was quick to respond to this situation via a forum post , confirming that the notification was not intended to go out to a wide audience.

We're sorry for this glitch and the confusion it created - we recognize this seemed like spam, and are taking steps so it doesn't happen again.

— Justin Uberti (@juberti) May 30, 2019

A post also confirmed that it was not actually an ad, but rather a message that was intended for users who “chose to participate in an upcoming Duo promotion.” The message was supposed to be received by people who had signed up for the promotion but ended up being sent to what appears to be a much wider audience.

(Also Read: ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: A look at the best Android and iOS apps for live match updates)