Google's relaunched Hangouts -- Wow.

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The long-speculated consolidation of Google Talk, Google+ Hangouts, and Google
Video Chat has finally occured, and it’s pretty spectacular.

[IMAGE: https://blog.omgmog.net/images/hangouts-banner.png]

My digital life is so dependent on Google services that it’s nice to find some
cross-platform consolidation.

So what does the relaunch include?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/XkpjZ7oA_Qg

One Android chat client to rule them all

Previously we had Google+ Hangouts and Google Talk on Android, now we’ve got one
single “Hangouts” app.

[IMAGE: https://blog.omgmog.net/images/android.png]

This is a long-due overhaul for Google Talk, bringing emoji(!), rich-contact
display, notification of whether messages are read or not, and (some sort of)
SMS integration.

I’m not sure about how integrated SMS is, but so far the app has asked me to
confirm my phone number.

The video chat integration is really nice and works well, though I’ve only
tested it between two Android devices on the same Wi-Fi network.

I often find myself taking photos of things at lunch and then sending them via
Gmail to my better half (http://jennybroomfield.co.uk).. but now I can do all of
that from within Hangouts, which means I’m not sending a 2.5mb jpeg, and there’s
no break in the conversation.

[IMAGE: https://blog.omgmog.net/images/share.png]

One final thing worth mentioning is that there is now a share intent for
Hangouts, so you can share links and things from your browser/gallery/etc. to
Hangouts. That’s one feature people have wanted in Google Talk for a long time.

Find out more about Hangouts on Android
(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.talk)

Hangouts in Google Chrome, but not in the browser window

This is a cool one, the Hangouts extension for Google Chrome runs in its own
window, not stuck inside Google Chrome, so it’s a lot nicer than using Google
Talk from within Gmail, or Google+ Hangouts.

[IMAGE: https://blog.omgmog.net/images/chrome.png]

I’ve been gradualling weening myself off of using AIM to talk to people over the
past couple of years, and so I can quite gladly say that I’ll no longer need to
use Mountain Lion’s Messages.app to talk on Gtalk. As Google Chrome is one of
those apps that’s always open on my Mac, why would I need to use an additional
app to use Hangouts?

Pretty awesome.

Find out more about Hangouts for Google Chrome
(https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hangouts/nckgahadagoaajjgafhacjanaoiihapd)

And for the iOS users..

Google have also brought Hangouts to iOS, which means there’s finally a good
“Google Talk” client available there. I don’t use any iOS devices, but it does
look quite nice.

Find out more about Hangouts for iOS
(https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hangouts/id643496868?mt=8)

Find out more about the new Hangouts from Google
(http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/)

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Published May 15, 2013

Generated from the original post:
https://blog.omgmog.net/post/googles-relaunched-hangouts-wow/


Max Glenister is an interface designer and senior full-stack developer from
Oxfordshire. He writes mostly about front-end development and technology.

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