Google Hangouts

187 'Google Hangouts' stories July 2011 - July 2016

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Hangouts was announced at I/O 2013 and combined the company’s disparate messaging platforms into one unified product. It includes the text elements of Google Talk and Google+ Messenger/Huddle, as well as the video portion of Google+ Hangouts.

Hangouts allows for group conversations with two or more people and can be accessed through Android and iOS apps, as well as the web in Gmail or the dedicated Hangouts site. Users can send images, video, stickers, and location, in addition to having group video calls with multiple people.

Until recently, Hangouts was the default messaging app on Android and handled SMS text messages. However, Google began pushing users to the dedicated Messenger SMS app and is introducing a new messaging app called Allo to replace the messaging parts of Hangouts and Duo for video.

Despite the new apps, Google has noted that Hangouts will remain as the company’s messaging solution for corporate customers.

Hangouts for Android v11 finally adds video messaging [Update: And removes merged conversations]

Ben Schoon Jul 12 2016 - 6:56 pm PT

Update: Google has confirmed that Hangouts v11 removes the ability to merged SMS and Hangouts conversations into a single thread. Google says they have done this “because it caused user confusion and had low usage”.

After what seems like an eternity, Google has finally updated Hangouts for Android with video messaging capabilities with version 11 of the app. Hangouts for iOS gained this same functionality early this year and after months of waiting, Android users finally have access…

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Hangouts for iOS now lets members of group Hangouts boot other members

Stephen Hall Jul 12 2016 - 12:27 pm PT

Update: The Android version of the app has now been updated with the same feature (and more!).

Hangouts just received an update to version 11.0.0 on iOS with some handy new features. The most interesting addition is the ability for anyone in a Hangout to remove any other person from said group Hangout, something that is currently not possible on the Hangouts web client or in the Android app…

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PSA: Google offering free Hangouts calls to Turkey in the wake of airport bombing

Stephen Hall Jun 29 2016 - 2:51 pm PT

As is often the case with tragic events such as these, Google is now providing free calls via Hangouts, Hangouts Dialer, and Google Voice to Turkey. The company has also begun pushing out Google Now cards for people in Turkey with links to emergency resources, and is also providing emergency information in search for those in Istanbul.

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Hangouts 10.0 for Android adds support for Direct Share on Marshmallow and above

Abner Li Jun 1 2016 - 8:52 pm PT

Hangouts is always quite slow to adopt the latest Android features. Eight months after Marshmallow’s release, Hangouts 10.0 is finally adding support for a Direct Share feature that provides quick access to frequent contacts.

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Google says Hangouts will remain a standalone product and continue to be updated

Abner Li May 18 2016 - 5:37 pm PT

Following the announcement of Allo this morning, many assumed that Hangouts would be replaced. However, Google has confirmed to numerous publications that Hangouts will remain a separate product and continue to live — for now at least.

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Google launches Duo, Allo’s companion, one-to-one video calling app

Edoardo Maggio May 18 2016 - 10:55 am PT

Following the announcement of its Assistant digital helper as well as the Amazon Echo‘s competitor Home, Google is now focusing on messaging and videos.

Allo was the first app announced at I/O 2016, and now Duo, a mobile exclusive one to one video service has been unveiled…

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Google Hangouts on the web now has a dense mode without the clutter

Stephen Hall May 10 2016 - 1:03 pm PT

You may know that you can access Hangouts via classic Google+ and Gmail, but did you know it also has a standalone web client over at hangouts.google.com? Now, Google has announced that you can show the list of conversations at all three sites in a new denser view.

This might be particularly enticing if you were a long-time GChat user, as it ditches the profiles images and frills to provide an experience that’s straightforward and simple…

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Google announces all-in-one Acer Chromebase for meetings and video conferencing

Abner Li Mar 31 2016 - 11:36 am PT

Chromebox for meetings were announced two years ago and introduced the constantly updating Chrome OS model to corporate video conferencing. Previous hardware included a Chromebox and a camera, but required companies to supply their own monitor. Today, Google is announcing a more complete package that features an all-in-one Acer Chromebase that runs the enterprise software.

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PSA: Google has made phone calls to Belgium and Turkey free on Hangouts

Abner Li Mar 22 2016 - 4:29 pm PT

In light of today’s appalling events in Brussels, as well as recent violence in Turkey, Google is offering free calls using Hangouts and Google Voice to the two countries. The company has done the same after similar events in France and is rolling out additional emergency resources via Google Now and Search to those in Brussels.

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Google Hangouts now lets App customers video chat with up to 25 participants

Jordan Kahn Mar 16 2016 - 11:07 am PT

You’ll soon be able to hold video chat meetings with much larger groups as today Google begins increasing the number of participants Apps customers can have in a Google Hangouts video call at any one time. The old limit of 10 participants today gets increased to 25 users.

The change comes to Apps customers only— Business, Government, and Education— while all other Hangouts users will still have the old limit of 10 participants for video.

Google notes that it will only show “the 10 most active video call participants” along the bottom of the video chat to maintain quality, but it will switch on the fly between active users for the new limit of up to 25 participants.

All Apps customers should start to see the new participant limit increase roll out over the next few days.

Improved call quality coming to Hangouts for Android via peer-to-peer connection

Abner Li Feb 4 2016 - 8:53 pm PT

Improved Hangouts is one of the most common requests from Android users. According to a rumor late last year, Google is working on making it a better chat client by removing SMS capabilities. It now appears that as a part of that Hangouts will use a peer-to-peer connection when possible.

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Voxer’s CTO just left to join Google — could walkie talkie features be coming to Hangouts?

Stephen Hall Feb 4 2016 - 12:22 pm PT

Voxer is a relatively popular messaging app for Android and iOS, and has long been considered one of the best solutions available for those looking for a great PPT (push-to-talk) experience on mobile. It received a ton of funding a few years ago, and while it never really took off in the mainstream, it’s still being updated even today with new fixes and features for its dedicated group of users. It has somewhere between 10 and 50 million Play Store installs.

George Kola, a software engineer that was most recently Chief Technology Officer of the company for more than a year, has now joined Google according to his LinkedIn profile. While it’s of course possible that Kola could have joined Google on his engineering merit alone and could be working in just about any department within the Mountain View company, it’s still worth asking: Could Google possibly have its eyes on bringing some walkie talkie features to Hangouts?..

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PSA: You can now type ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ in Google Hangouts with an easy slash command

Stephen Hall Jan 27 2016 - 11:54 am PT

Sage LaTorra, a Test Engineer at Google, just told the world about an awesome little Easter egg he added to Google Hangouts. He’s one to often use the shrug emoji, so it makes sense that this was a priority for him. As of now, all you have to do to add a “shruggie” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ to your Hangouts message is add the command “/shruggie” to the beginning…

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Hangouts 7.0 adds notification quick reply, encourages users to switch to Messenger for SMS

Abner Li Jan 26 2016 - 3:10 pm PT

According to a rumor last year, Google would remove the ability to send SMS from Hangouts in a future update. While version 7.0 released today is not that update, it advises users to switch to Google Messenger for SMS. It also adds quick reply to notifications and the ability to add message shortcuts to the homescreen.

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Google wants to make Hangouts better at Hangouts, planning to strip SMS support to do so

Stephen Hall Dec 17 2015 - 2:52 pm PT

The well-connected Derek Ross took to his Google+ profile yesterday, sharing a post entitled “Things that’ll piss people off”. In said post, he details something that — indeed — will piss people off. According to Ross (who has a pretty good track record when it comes to Google software), the Mountain View company is planning to strip SMS support from Hangouts in an effort to make the app better at its job…
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Google Hangouts adds guest access allowing users without Google accounts to join chats

Jordan Kahn Nov 19 2015 - 9:17 am PT

Google announced today that it’s adding “guest access” to Hangouts, allowing users without Google accounts to join a Hangouts video call.

Google notes that the feature is something that has been highly requested by businesses, giving them an option to easily invite clients and others that may not already be hooked into Google’s ecosystem.

Previously inviting users without Google accounts to a video call would prompt them to create one before joining. With today’s changes, non-Google account holders can join a chat straight from a Google Calendar invite by only entering their name:

Say you’re a business about to talk through new product plans with your supplier, and you decide it’d be great to also get the thoughts of a key customer. No problem. Invite your external guests with Google Calendar… They click a link in the event description and fill in their name

With the update, Google notes joining video calls are now one click away and won’t require filling out forms or creating accounts. The feature is available now for users joining Hangouts through a web browser.

PSA: Google has made international phone calls to France free on Hangouts

Stephen Hall Nov 13 2015 - 8:00 pm PT

In the wake of some absolutely tragic and terrifying events tonight in Paris, Google has made international phone calls to France free on Google Hangouts. In other tragic past events, many companies that offer calling services have offered similar opportunities.

In a related initiative, Facebook has tonight launched a feature called Safety Check, which allows you to “quickly find and connect with friends in the area” and mark them safe if you know they’re safe. You can also let your friends know if you’re in the affected area.

We’ve made international calls to France free via Hangouts. #ParisAttacks
Android→ https://t.co/RLNSn2HPHd
iOS→ https://t.co/UKRrBZgBGT

— Google (@Google) November 14, 2015

You can head over to the Play Store or the App Store to grab the app for free, or head to hangouts.google.com to make free international calls to France straight from your browser.

My thoughts are with all the victims and their families on this sad night #Paris Great to see everyone come together to support France

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) November 14, 2015

Hangouts hits version 6.0 on iOS with performance improvements, not much else

Stephen Hall Nov 10 2015 - 8:05 am PT

Google has kept Hangouts for iOS just slightly ahead of its Android counterpart when it comes to its version number, and today that tradition continues. Hangouts on Apple’s platform just got a not-so-big update to 6.0 (which you would think would be a major upgrade), but there only seems to be general performance improvements in this one…

Here’s the full — and very disappointing — change log:

What’s New in Version 6.0.0

• Other general notification improvements.
• Accessibility bug fixes.
• Fix for iPhone 6s sound quality.

You can head over to the App Store to grab the new version, but if you’re like me, updates to the Android app would be much more welcome. Actually, I wouldn’t be upset if we just got bug fix & performance improvements for the Android version for the next few releases. I will say, though, that the app has become much more usable in recent months.

Hangouts web update brings faster experience and streamlined look

Abner Li Nov 9 2015 - 2:37 pm PT

Google’s giving the web Hangouts a revamp today. The interface (as seen above) is more minimalist and takes advantage of the full screen. Under the hood, calls should start quicker and have higher resolution. Rounding up the list of changes is a simpler invite system.

Here’s what Googler Eduardo Fernández had to say about the update:

Today, we’re introducing a new calling experience for Hangouts on the web that loads more quickly, renders video more sharply, and streamlines the interface so you can focus less on where to click and more on what to say. We’ve been using this new calling experience at Google for a while now. It’s early days, but we hope you like it as much as we do. (Note: This is not available for Google Apps for Work customers.)

Key changes include:
• Calls that start faster and stay crisper, with higher quality video
• A more streamlined and immersive full-screen interface
• A simpler way to invite friends and family to your calls

Starting today, a small group of users should see the improvements and it will be fully released over the coming days. The update is not yet available for Google Apps for Work customers.

Google releases Hangouts 5.0 w/ splash screen, performance improvements, more

Stephen Hall Oct 12 2015 - 10:13 am PT

The well-connected Derek Ross took to Google+ last week to tease the latest update to Hangouts, version number 5.0. And while 4.0 — the update that brought a long-awaited visual overhaul — hasn’t even been around that long, this version makes a lot of improvements to the app’s performance, brings full-working GIFs, a splash screen, and more…
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Hangouts 5.0 for Android launch imminent with more splash, less lag

Cam Bunton Oct 8 2015 - 3:43 am PT

Hangouts 4.0 hasn’t been around that long, but according to a tip from Derek Ross, version 5.0 will be launching imminently with a handful of important improvements. Most of the improvements seem to center around speed and efficiency. Ross posted the following list of features to his Google+ profile, suggesting we might see some visual differences as well as performance improvements:

Sending messages lag: Gone.
Loading conversation lag: Gone.
Main screen conversation update lag: Reduced.
Hangouts splash screen: Included.
Pop-up ‘signed in as’: Now in white.
GIFs: They work!
Dogfood icon: Removed.
Is it coming today: Shrug emoji.

Visual changes include a new Hangouts splash screen as well as making the ‘signed in as’ pop-up white, giving it a cleaner look. What’s more, GIFs now work for the first time, so you’ll be able to annoy your friends and contacts with animated pictures, if you like.

We’re not sure when the update is going to drop, but the last couple of points are a good indication that it’s coming very soon. The Dogfood icon being removed suggests that internal testing is completed and that it’s ready for public use.

Google Hangouts gets its own dedicated website

Tom Maxwell Aug 17 2015 - 2:16 pm PT

In a sign that its Hangouts messaging platform is becoming more important to the company, and that Google+ is becoming somewhat less important, Google has given Hangouts its own dedicated website found at hangouts.google.com.

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Hangouts 4.0 goes live today with new look, full Android Wear support, more

Tom Maxwell Aug 10 2015 - 8:09 am PT

Yes, the day many have been waiting for in eager anticipation is finally here: Google has officially announced in a blog post that Hangouts version 4.0 goes live in the company’s Play Store today.
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Google Slides presentations can now be shared over Hangouts video call

Stephen Hall Aug 5 2015 - 7:38 pm PT

Google has announced today that, thanks to a recent update to Google Slides, users can now quickly and easily share their presentations over Hangouts video call.

Google Slides helps you share your big ideas with the world, but sometimes presenting these ideas can be challenging. In June, Slides added support for Chromecast and Airplay, which made it easier to project your slides on the big screen. Now there’s another new way to share your work: easy presenting to Hangouts video calls. Teammates, partners, clients and classmates can see your ideas, even if they’re on the other side of the planet.

As you can see in the below video, all you need to get started is an Android phone or tablet. Tapping the play button along the top bar of the app will let you present to a new video call or one that’s already ongoing.