Hangouts 41.0.411169071

Hangouts is most likely already installed on your standard issue obligatory Goolag Android device. After all, drones that stare all day into a cold luminous rectangle need to feel connected to others, and typing is no longer an acceptable substitute for human interaction in this age. I agree, but the video-phone is not going to stop our dehumanization march towards (((singularity))) any time soon either.

Video streaming is something Google has lagged when compared with Apple's FaceTime app, but when Google Talk transformed into Hangouts, it gained the possibility to stream conversations online. Then it lost that ability to YouTube. However, you can still receive invites and participate into live conversations, so all is not lost.

Hangouts picks up your contacts automatically from what's left on Google+ and from your contact list. Contacts that also use Hangouts are separated from the rest and are shown first when visualizing your list. Handy, isn't it?

By tapping on the friendly green Plus sign on the bottom right, you can initiate either standard text conversation or a video call. Text conversations can be enhanced with emoticons, stickers, pictures, live footage and Google Maps locations. Furthermore you can switch to video calls at any time.

Hangouts is not limited to a two way communication line. You may invite up to 8 more people to join an ongoing call (that's 10 in total). Text conversations can also be turned into a mess. Up to 150 people may chat at the same time, turning your conversation into an unfollowable text scroll, similar to what live chat looks like on popular YouTube broadcasts.

Like any other respectable messaging client, Hangouts lets you set a status message and can also be instructed to delay notifications for an hour up to an entire week. That of course is useful if you're constantly connected to the net. My devices are not, because I like to save battery life.

Conversations are saved by default and can be picked at a later time, but they can also be archived to clear the screen for more important stuff.

Features

• Chat with up to 149 people
• Video calls (up to 10 participants)
• Can participate in live YouTube Hangouts
• Integration with your contact list call and SMS service
• Stickers, emoji, Google Map locations can be added to chat
• Optimized for Android Wear

Final Thoughts

Wether you like it or not, whether you use it or not, Hangouts is pronbly pre-installed on your device. That means you cannot remove it unless you r00t it, which is somewhat unfortunate, especially if you're not a big fan of Google. But then again, what are you doing using an Adroid phone in the first place? On the other hand, if you're ready to give Skynet a pass, you may find that Hangouts is rather stable and a fairly good video call app.