Tag: Hangouts

Google Gtalk’s 9-Year-Reign to Come to an End on 16th February

Google’s IM service Gtalk after 9 fulfilling years will come to an end on 16th February. The internet search giant has decided to push its user base to Hangouts, the new app for chat.

The company is shutting down its Gtalk service on February 16, which will be replaced by Hangouts. Google declared the same via chat saying that Google Talk app for Windows will go non-functional on February 16, 2015 and users can download Hangouts Chrome feature to continue chatting.

Hangouts is also very user friendly to use and offers many more features with a convenient interface. It shows when the person was last seen, allows to chat with multiple people at a time, allows video calling and packs many more features than the Gtalk.

This move was obvious and Google is not being unfair by taking down Gtalk. The company gave users ample time to get used to it by announcing it on May 2013. Hangouts is the future of Google, but it is also true that Hangouts is not widely accepted. However, one cannot deny that the instant messaging application is the need of the hour as it provides smooth integration between PC, tablet and mobile.

February 5, 2015
Google Voice’s Website Gets Hangouts Integration

If you use Google Voice to manage your phone calls and text message, then you must be waiting to see if Google will eventually merge Google Voice with Hangouts for Android and iOS. Well, Google went ahead and did it for PCs, integrating Hangouts into the Google Voice website.

In a Wednesday post, Google Voice developer Alex Wiesen announced the addition of Hangouts as an option when making calls from the Web. The feature can be accessed selecting Hangouts from a drop-down menu labeled “Phone to call with.” The website will then launch a separate Hangouts window, allowing the conversation to take place as normal. Hangouts is seen as Google’s’ solution to its fractured messaging systems, and even offers the ability to place phone calls.

But while the new platform has been heralded as “the future of Google Voice,” little has been done to merge the two services. Nonetheless, the decision to integrate Hangouts in Google Voice shows the company is still actively developing the latter.

To use the new option, visit the Google Voice website and enter the number you’d like to call. Then, in the drop-down menu under Phone to call with, you’ll see an option for Hangouts. This will open a separate Hangouts window and you can carry on your voice conversation via Hangouts as you normally would.

In May 2013, Google began work on allowing outbound Google Voice calls within the new Hangouts experience; it arrived two months later. Earlier this month, the Google Operating System blog spotted a feature that migrates Google Voice numbers to Hangouts—a sign that the Web giant may be moving forward with the plan to integrate the two features, then shutter the separate Voice tool.

July 25, 2014
Google Brings Hangouts With SMS and Updated Keyboard To Play Store

Google has always added some great application to its Play Store making the user experience great, with the launch of the latest Android aka Kitkat the company has now launched the much awaited application.

The new Hangouts app with integrated SMS that was promised by Google last week is now available on the Play Store. In addition to the SMS and MMS integration, it also adds support for animated GIFs, device status and the ability to share your location in your conversations. The application for the stock Android keyboard has received an update to version 2.0 will only be available to users with the new OS installed on their device. So this will not be of great use to everyone right now, but might come in handy once your device updates to the latest OS.

November 8, 2013
Rumour : Next Version Of Google Hangouts To Replace Stock Messaging App

The next version of Google Hangouts for Android will likely replace the stock Messaging app with a single, unified Hangouts version that detects whether the respondent is also using Google’s new multi-platform chat-and-conference service, and if so will send the message over data, and if not will send it via SMS.

The revelation was made by Android Police who, after hearing rumours of the service consolidation in Android 4.4 KitKat, received some pretty convincing screenshots showing Hangouts sending messages “via SMS.”

Messages sent via SMS will show “via SMS” next to the timestamp so that you can always figure out the protocol used for each message delivery. You can request delivery reports for sent SMSes – a feature that is part of the SMS protocol that some of you may be using regularly.

The fundamental question is whether this will be an Android 4.4-only thing, and how it will work with previous versions. It’s not like Google can update Play Services and all of a sudden hundreds of millions of Android users have a single, unified SMS app. More likely, Hangouts, like many third-party SMS apps, will ask to become the “default” and take over the role of the stock messaging app. Nexus devices will probably receive an update to remove the legacy Messages app and go forth with just Hangouts.

Guess we’ll have to wait and see!

[Via]

October 9, 2013