Holidays and special occasions are always a good time to catch up with friends and family. A few decades ago, we used to send them greeting cards by regular mail, then came email, and now we have a lot of instant messaging apps that help us record a spontaneous video to share with them. If you use Google Duo to talk with your loved ones, you can now add a bit of Halloween and Diwali flair to your pre-recorded video messages.

Open Duo, swipe down to record a message, and tap on the Effects button on the right. You'll get two Halloween effects then a Diwali one, followed by the six default others.

For Halloween, you can pick between a pumpkin scarecrow and a haunted house, whereas the Diwali effect is gold, classy, and sparkly.

Celebrate the festive season with your loved ones, no matter the distance. Add some sparkle to your festive greetings with fun Diwali filters on #GoogleDuo. pic.twitter.com/BwvUoPOmvT — Google India (@GoogleIndia) October 25, 2019

The effects should show up without a need for a new app version, but they may be geo-restricted. On my end, I see none of them, whereas Artem and our tipster Nick have all three in the US.