What is Hangouts? The Google service can do it

In the crisis of the crown the Video chat for employees in the Ministry of Interior, but also for students and relatives and friends essential to stay in touch with each other. Google Hangouts is currently enjoying a lot of upflow like video chat. In this article we therefore answer the question about what Google Hangouts is and for those who are suitable.

1. What is Google Hangouts?

Many Google services such as Google Documents and Tables or Google Maps are known to almost all. Google Hangouts, on the other hand, often flies under the radar. This is one Messenger, who in addition to the text, to the voice and the video chat also offers telephony. You just need a Google account to use Hangouts with which you can use the service for free.

The commissions that Google has published on its website are only for telephony on the mobile phone or on the fixed network. A call to German fixed network costs, for example, 0.01 euros and 0.03 euros per minute in the mobile network. As with Skype, the agreement takes place by charging your Google Hangouts account. The charge must be at least 12 euros so that a telephony is possible.

Good to know: With Google Meet there is also a paid variant for company customers, which is part of the G. Suite G. Meeting offers the possibility of keeping a conference with many participants (up to 250) and accessing the counter special hardware.

2. Use of Google Hangouts with the app

There are free apps for iOS and Android for Google Messenger. The app, as you are used to from other messengers, offers a chat window for each participant or group. You can use text messages, stickers, smileys and photos here and start a voice chat or a video chat.

Contacts are available in Google contacts or through the name, and -mail or mobile number. However, the messenger can be adapted so that not everyone can contact you with the knowledge of your contact details. Here you have the choice to determine if users can contact you directly, if you know the contact details or only after an invitation.

With this access model, the Hangouts are also suitable for minors who want to stay in touch with grandmother, grandfather or friends without having to run the risk of being contacted by unknown users.
Hangouts can be used on the desktop or directly in the browser.

3. Hangouts directly on the web browser

One of the special features of Hangouts is the service option on the smartphone via free apps for iOS and Android or on the PC To be used via the web browser. You don’t need further software on the PC.

To do this, you just have to register with your Google account and therefore you can call the service directly from the browser through the selection of Google services (rectangle with points) or Hangout’s address that you can find here.

Not just Google Chrome: Even if Google indicates that Hangouts can be used better with Google Chrome, you can also use the service with other browsers based on chromium (for example Microsoft Edge Chomium) or Mozilla Firefox

You can start a video call, a phone call or a chat message in the browser.

In the settings, you need to approve access to the camera, microphone and diffuser.

In the settings you also have the opportunity to specify the quality of the video. Up to 720p are possible here.

The video chat supports up to 10 participants, which should be sufficient for most candidates for private users. Video chat can also be recorded and shared via YouTube.

3.1. Sharing the screen for e-learning and home office

During the video chat you have the opportunity to release the screen on the desktop. With several screens, you can also make a selection whose desktop should be displayed.

The screen is therefore visible both in the browser window of the other participants, and on mobile customers and is ideal for school lessons or for the home.

In the following video, use in the browser and as an app is explained again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqra51rk-sq

4. Google Hangouts only encrypted the transmission

Like many other video services, Google Hangouts encrypts the transmission via the Internet. At the moment there is no complete end-to-end encryption, for example Jits or WhatsApp. This would be substantially able to use and evaluate the data with itself. Therefore we recommend not to exchange sensitive information on this service.

5. Our recommendation

In our opinion, Google Hangouts is not suitable as a standard messenger. The reason is that Missing end-to-end encryption and low distribution. For the Sleeping video chat with several participants, on the other hand, is a good choice, on the other hand, Google Hangouts, Above all because up to 10 participants can take part in a videoconference.

(29 votes, media: 4,80 out of 5)

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