Hangouts Meet Stories April 1, 2020
Google reports surge in Hangouts Meet usage amid coronavirus
When possible, the world is largely staying home and turning to remote work or distance-learning. As a result, Hangouts Meet and other Google products have seen tremendous “surges” in usage amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Hangouts Meet Stories March 23, 2020
Google recommends these webcams and headsets for Hangouts Meet
As millions have started working from home in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, Google’s Hangouts Meet video conferencing tool has ended up with more users. Now, Google has published a list of recommendations for what hardware users should pick up for Hangouts Meet including webcams and headsets.
Hangouts Meet Stories March 19, 2020
Google updates Hangouts Meet to give teachers more control over calls
In light of COVID-19, many students around the world are turning to remote learning. Google at the start of this month made premium Hangouts Meet features available to all G Suite customers. An update today makes tweaks to improve the education experience and ensure teachers have control over Hangouts Meet calls.
Hangouts Meet Stories March 3, 2020
As a result of COVID-19, office employees and students are beginning to work remotely to help reduce the risk of spreading, and more are expected to join. Google today announced that it’s aiding the coronavirus relief effort by making premium Hangouts Meet features available for free to all G Suite customers.
Hangouts Meet Stories February 10, 2020
Hangouts Meet now supports Safari 13 and later on macOS
Ahead of Google deprecating classic Hangouts later this year for enterprise customers, the two intended replacements need to achieve feature parity. The latest step sees Hangouts Meet add support for Safari on macOS.
Hangouts Meet Stories October 24, 2019
Hangouts Meet for web gets Material Theme tweaks
The latest G Suite app to get a Material Theme revamp is the web Hangouts Meet client. This “new look and feel” for Google’s enterprise video conferencing service only offers visual improvements with no functionality changes.
Hangouts Meet Stories September 16, 2019
Google adds live captions to Hangouts Meet for Android
Unlike Chat, the transition to Hangouts Meet has been less controversial for Google. The Android client is now adding support for live captions, while it’s easier to enable the feature on the web client.
Hangouts Meet Stories July 8, 2019
New Chrome extension hides your Netflix binging as Hangouts Meet call
It’s the Monday after a long weekend and you might not want to get back to work just yet. Thanks to a new Chrome extension you can procrastinate a while longer and finish up Stranger Things 3 or any other Netflix show while on your important, do not disturb “Hangouts Meet” call.
Hangouts Meet Stories April 30, 2019
At Cloud Next 2019 earlier this month, Google announced a number of Hangouts Meet features like availability in Chat, public streams, and live captioning. The latest for Google’s enterprise video conferencing service is adaptive layouts that automatically adjust to the context of a meeting.
Hangouts Meet Stories April 10, 2019
Google announced this morning that Hangouts Chat is coming to Gmail. That integration was teased earlier this year as one of the legacy features coming from classic Hangouts. At Cloud Next 2019, Google detailed public Guest access, Meet/Voice integration, and a Progress Web Apps to replace Electron clients.
This October, Google is retiring Hangouts “classic” for G Suite enterprise users. Ahead of that, a number of legacy features will be added to the Hangouts Chat and Meet replacements. At Cloud Next 2019, Google announced Chat integration in Gmail, while public streaming and live captioning are coming to Hangouts Meet.
Hangouts Meet Stories February 4, 2019
With Hangouts Meet hardware, Google set out to offer an end-to-end video conferencing solution for enterprise customers. Powered by Chrome OS, current packages feature a touch screen controller, as well as camera, microphone, and speaker. Google Cloud today announced a partnership with Logitech and a new Acer Chromebase for Meetings.
Hangouts Meet Stories January 31, 2019
Google adds dedicated Hangouts Meet IP addresses for G Suite admins, network prioritization
With Hangouts classic set to be retired later this year, Google is moving full steam ahead on making Hangouts Meet a full featured video conferencing solution. The latest enterprise-focussed feature sees Google add fixed IP addresses for the G Suite service.
Hangouts Meet Stories January 22, 2019
Alongside initial details on the transition of G Suite users from classic Hangouts to Hangouts Chat & Meet, Google is also giving us just a little bit more info on the transition from ‘classic’ Hangouts to free Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet for consumers.
After our report last year that Google plans to shut down classic Hangouts in 2020, the company announced that it was “fully committed” to supporting classic Hangouts users until it completed a “successful” migration to Hangouts Chat and Meet. The company didn’t detail a timeline for the Hangouts transition then, but now that day has come — at least for G Suite users.
Hangouts Meet Stories December 7, 2018
Over the past week, the narrative around Google’s messaging and communication services has been defined by a spate of planned deprecations — both of which 9to5Google first reported about. While older services will be “sunset,” the company’s vision for consumers hasn’t changed much since earlier this year, revolving around RCS “Chat” and Google Duo video calling.
However, complicating this dual-service future now is the newly-revealed fact that the enterprise-focused Hangouts Chat and Meet will also be available to consumers, and that Google Voice is still an active service. This is just the latest in Google’s tangled and sometimes incoherent strategy for simply saying “Hello.”
Hangouts Meet Stories December 5, 2018
Over the past several days, 9to5Google reported that Google was planning to move away from “classic Hangouts” and sunset Google Allo. Amid the discussion about the company’s messaging future, Google today clarified its strategy, and published a definite blog post confirming our two reports.
Hangouts Meet Stories December 1, 2018
[Update: Google statement] Hangouts Chat & Hangouts Meet will open to consumers before ‘Hangouts classic’ shuts down
Things are shaking up again in the ever-quaking world of Google’s endless messaging apps. Yesterday, we reported that Google’s Hangouts messaging service would shut down some time in 2020. While one Googler has refuted that timeline, he’s not denied that what he calls the “classic version of Hangouts” is on the way out, and one step of this process is to open Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat to consumers.
Hangouts Meet Stories November 30, 2018
Google’s Hangouts Meet now supports up to 100 participants
Google’s Hangouts Meet platform is slowly growing into an excellent platform for businesses to host video conferences. Today, the company has announced that Hangouts Meet can now support up to 100 participants at once, doubling the previous limit.
Hangouts Meet Stories September 12, 2018
Hangouts Meet adds live streaming for up to 100K participants
Announced last year, Hangouts Meet is Google’s video conferencing solution for enterprises and larger organizations. Today, the service is adding support for live streams like company-wide meetings and other events where users need to tune in, but not necessarily participate.
Hangouts Meet Stories April 25, 2018
Google is transitioning G Suite video meetings to Hangouts Meet
Google continues its spree of slowly retiring apps in favor of newer ones, with all G Suite administrators receiving a notice about video meetings.
Hangouts Meet Stories April 2, 2018
Hangouts Meet gains free U.S. and Canada phone calling to add participants
Hangouts Chat finally launched to the public in February, joining Hangouts Meet and reflecting the move towards Hangouts becoming an enterprise service. The video conferencing app is today adding the ability to make free phone calls.
Hangouts Meet Stories February 6, 2018
Last October, Google launched dedicated hardware for its Hangouts Meet video conferencing solution. Today, it is adding an option to support larger rooms, while launching in more countries, along with Jamboard.
Hangouts Meet Stories October 31, 2017
Earlier this year, Google relaunched Hangouts as an enterprise service focused at teams. Hangouts Meet — the video component — launched before the text chat app and is today adding dedicated hardware to simplify video conferencing.
Hangouts Meet Stories July 18, 2017
Earlier this year, Google announced an enterprise-focused revamp of Hangouts. Split into two apps, Chat is focussed on text communication, while Meet is designed for video conferencing. The former service is not yet ready, but the latter is adding a highly requested messaging feature for text chatting during calls.
Hangouts Meet Stories March 9, 2017
With the launch of Allo and Duo, Google telegraphed last year that Hangouts would be moving to a more enterprise focus. Today, the service is finally seeing that major revamp, with the app being split into Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet. The former is a Slack-like group chat tool, while the latter improves the video conferencing experience.
