Both of Google’s Chrome for Android browser and Hangouts applications received updates today, available for download through Google Play. The Chrome update lists two new APIs that developers can utilize, one that enables video and voice communications directly in browser without the need for a plugin, while the other allows the processing of audio within web applications. In addition, there is now a “visual indication” when you scroll to the top or bottom of a webpage. (more…)
Google Hangouts received an update today (or earlier in the week but is just now rolling out to everyone) to version 1.1. The update is minor, as in it doesn’t include Google Voice or any other new feature. What we are getting is more emoji, and additional “butter” to make the app run faster and slicker. The update also fixes a bunch of bugs. And that’s it.
What’s New:
1.1
- Added more emoji!
- We added some butter to Hangouts to make it run faster and slicker.
- Fixed a bunch of bugs.
Cheers Jason!
This afternoon, Google announced that making calls through Hangouts will go live over the next couple of days. Since the move from Google Talk to Hangouts happened shortly after Google I/O, we’ve been anxiously awaiting the return of calling through Gmail. To make up for the wait, Google has gone ahead and made calling “better than before.” (more…)
So Google does this really annoying thing now with app updates, where it slowly rolls them out rather than posting the newest build and letting everyone go grab it. We saw it with the new Gmail once it went live on Monday, and are seeing it today with Hangouts. Gmail’s big overhaul went live two days ago, but is now just becoming available to everyone this morning. So if you didn’t download and install it manually, be sure to check your device or head into the web Google Play store and install it. (more…)
Now that you have had four or five days to fully dive into two of Google I/O’s biggest announcements – Hangouts and Play Music All Access – we thought it was time to see who is garnering most of your attention. I’ve fully committed to the new Hangouts and am already figuring out how to convince friends and family to make the permanent switch over. All Access on the other hand is sitting in limbo on my devices, since it is not compatible with the Nexus Q for the time being. See, I use Google Music quite a bit in my office, but only through the Q, so I’m unable to take advantage of my free trial at this point. I’d certainly like to use the hell out of it – just can’t for now. Tim on the other hand, is an All Access machine and couldn’t stop using it the entire time we were at I/O.
So what about you? Are you using both? If so, which is taking up most of your time?
[poll id=”255″]
Last week at the I/O developers conference, Google introduced Hangouts, a cross-platform unified messaging service. Although, the service didn’t quite incorporate all of Google’s messaging services at time of launch, it has been confirmed through Nikhyl Singhal’s Google+ page that Hangouts is in fact, “the future of Google Voice.” (more…)
We were the first to report the codename of “Babel” as Google’s new unified messaging service, which ended up as Hangouts at public launch, but if you needed actual proof that Babel was around for some time, we thought we’d share this screenshot. It’s taken from my Google Dashboard listing of sites authorized to access my account. You can see that the Hangouts app for iOS is indeed referred to as “iOS Babel App.” (It’s on an iPod Touch that I use for work purposes, don’t kill me.)
You can also hear Google’s director of product management, real-time communications mention it in this video at the 1:40 mark.
Cheers Matt!
Google mentioned during its unveiling of Hangouts that it would gradually rollout to Gmail over the coming weeks, but if you’d like to turn it on immediately, you can do that today. All you need to do is sign-in to your Gmail account, login to Google Talk in the left sidebar, click on the image associated with your Talk account, and then tap the “Try the new Hangouts” option that appears at the top of the list.
Bam! Enjoy.
*Note – This trick does not seem to be working in Google Apps accounts, online Gmail.
Via: reddit
Cheers Leo!