13 ms·
Google Hangouts 4.0: now simpler, faster, more beautiful
- avolcano 11y agoAnd here I was excited thinking that they'd finally fixed the terrible performance and interface of the browser app.
- pgrote 11y agoI hear what you are saying. The android app has horrible bugs and atrocious performance as an SMS client and Google Voice client. I am hopeful this release addresses those items.
- realusername 11y agoMost of my friends actually moved to Skype because of this.
- robbrit 11y agoInteresting, poor performance (and also chewing through battery) was why I moved from Skype.
- e40 11y agoYeah, the browser addon for Hangouts is literally the worst thing Google has ever done, IMO. On the Mac it is even worse. I would be seriously surprised if anyone at Google actually used this POS.
- flinty 11y ago100% agreed. I use it because I have to not because I want to. It literally messes up the command tab/command tilde behavior. This in addition to being a terrible interface overall and the general nuisance of notifications not being synced up with Android
- codingvelocity 11y agoI sincerely hope they are fixing the mms integration. The default messaging apps can handle mms from my carrier, hangouts has never worked properly with my carrier for mms
- Zikes 11y agoThe only features I want are setting availability status and getting online notifications for contacts. IMs have had those features for decades, and contrary to Google's narrow worldview not everybody is online and available 24/7.
- Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0 11y agoThis post is about the android app. How do you define "online" when you're on a phone with a data connection, an extremely common use case for this scenario? (Or rather, what makes someone "offline" here?) Maybe it's better to track whether the user is busy or free-to-interrupt, which I think is what Google is already doing. (I believe there is also an option to broadcast if you're on your phone or your desktop, although I don't fully understand why it's that useful) Edit: I looked up Google's documentation, and apparently they do indeed track Online/Offline in the hangouts app [1], but from what I understand, installing the android app with a data connection = online. I'm not sure what Offline means. I guess the parent is asking for notifications about the Online/Offline change, which does not exist. (But again, if installing the app means you're always Online in hangouts, you won't get any notifications anyway) [1] https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/3111918?hl=en https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/3111918?hl=en
- feld 11y agoHas the phone been sleeping / screen off / locked for a long time? Probably "offline" or something else describes this better. Is user actively using their phone? "online" It's simple. IM clients have figured this out years ago.
- mtgx 11y agoDoes it come with end-to-end encryption yet? It's a strange world we live in where I feel my data is safer in a Facebook app than in a Google one.
- fluidcruft 11y agoIs Google still the NSA's secret lap dog?
- yoasif_ 11y ago"Critics are quick to point out that if a user is not paying for a product, they are the product, and of course encrypting notifications from Facebook won't stop the social media behemoth from accessing all the data itself. The only way to protect one's data from Facebook is to stop using Facebook." http://readwrite.com/2015/06/03/facebook-pgp-encryption http://readwrite.com/2015/06/03/facebook-pgp-encryption
- pdkl95 11y agohttps://projectbullrun.org/surveillance/2015/video-2015.html#balkan https://projectbullrun.org/surveillance/2015/video-2015.html... Aral Balkan's talk is a highly effective explanation of this problem. Of course, it's not that popular here given how it exposes the "big data"/"free" malware that is popular in Silicon Valley. Just look at the apparatchik in this thread, talking about features when they should be talking about how to set up a proper federated (and encrypted) protocol. Why else would Google disable many of the features of XMPP federation? Allowing federated XMPP servers wouldn't give them the surveillance data.
- briandh 11y agoGiven the context, mtgx is most likely referring to Facebook-owned WhatsApp's (somewhat opaque) support for end-to-end encryption.
- izacus 11y agoOf course, I still have to run Chrome just for a slow and terrible browser interface on the desktop. Which was a major annoyance (especially since for some reason using Safari extends battery life for a huge amount) that caused me to switch to Telegram.
- sliverstorm 11y agoI ache for the old GTalk windows application. Tiny, lightweight, standalone, and simple. Very Unix, really.
- StavrosK 11y agoI ache for the old GTalk Android application too. Also very Unix, then Google had to go and be all walled-garden. I hate how I have to have three separate IM clients, each with its own half-baked implementation on at least one platform, just so I can talk to all my friends. Too bad corporate interests are against openness. I really would have liked it if all services were interoperable with one another.
- Nullabillity 11y agoTheir Android application still didn't support federated contacts even when it was based on XMPP.
- chimeracoder 11y ago> Their Android application still didn't support federated contacts even when it was based on XMPP If I remember correctly, it did, and then they removed the feature. They claim it was due to spam, but really, there are a number of ways to solve that problem without removing the feature entirely (ranging from better spam-prevention heuristics to requiring an explicit opt-in). Hangouts is in all ways inferior to Google Talk. It's really a shame.
- wnevets 11y agoit was probably the best ui google has done with the exception of their home page.
- Osiris 11y ago* It's about time. My wife complains about getting random SMS messages that turn out to be replies to group texts. She started giving out her direct cell number instead of her Google Voice number because of this problem. Hopefully with this she'll be able to use Voice exclusively.
- endtime 11y agoI've been dogfooding this for a couple weeks, and I am very happy to be able to say that that feature (finally!) works, at least for me. Used to drive me nuts.
- Navarr 11y agoDownloaded the APK - won't let me create MMS when set to always send from my Google Voice, and when set to send from "Last number" group MMS is created with my actual #. I'm praying that it's a server side flag and not a case of Google Apps Free users getting skewered somehow.
- endtime 11y agoI use Google Apps Free for my personal account, so I doubt that's your issue. But I don't think I've initiated any group MMSes, just received them (and subsequently replied, which worked). You might be hitting a bug that I didn't. :/
- Navarr 11y agoGoogle recently confirmed that it's a server-side switch, so I'm guessing for me it's just not enabled yet. They're waiting for the rollout to switch it on.
- msujaws 11y agoIt looks like some of the user experience ideas from Google Messenger have made their way to Google Hangouts. How long does Google plan on supporting two Android SMS/MMS apps? I've been using Messenger and it's pretty nice. I especially like the ability to search through my messages, something that the Hangouts v4 screenshot doesn't show.
- codebeaker 11y agoI just wish Hangouts would auto-archive Hangouts that I leave. The interface for "Archiving" all the hangouts that I left on the web, or via the browser extension is terrible, 4-5 clicks to archive each one. I keep the Android app installed only so that I can use it's multi-select and archive-all functionality.
- aesthetics1 11y agoI personally have moved on to Google Messenger for MMS. It's simpler and faster. I like the feature of being able to color-code my contacts in conversations too. It just makes it a lot easier to read through a group text that way. Hangouts is cool and all, but I wish Google would just decide which app they are going to push and get on with it.
- mtgx 11y agoI don't think IMs and SMS/MMS texts should mix. Period. Leave the legacy stuff to its own apps, and we just move on to new stuff without having to support that legacy burden. It's exactly why I welcomed TextSecure killing the SMS integration (it was even more annoying that it was asking you for it by default, as Hangouts does, too).
- tdkl 11y agoThe mix would be great if Google wouldn't halfass it and made it like iMessage. If user is on Hangouts and online, send Hangout message. If not online/not on Hangouts, send SMS/MMS. How hard can it be?
- daheza 11y agoI could never figure out if it is possible to do tabbed chat on the chrome extension. All these windows makes me feel like I am using lync.
- mintplant 11y agoTitle could be updated to reflect that this only affects the Android app.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- livingparadox 11y agoI CAN FINALLY GET MMS MESSAGES WITH MY GOOGLE VOICE NUMBER! Sorry for the caps. But that's been mildly annoying for a long time, so its kind of exciting to finally have a complete messaging system on google voice.
- rplnt 11y agoBut don't do it if you have Android :)
- josteink 11y agoI guess that's yet another Google feature everyone outside the US can give a flying fuck about.
- semiquaver 11y agoMMS for photos and videos have been in google voice (when used via hangouts) for about a year[1]. The (still very exiting) new feature is support for group texts which piggyback on MMS. Previously incoming group texts would appear as SMS messages from each individual recipient and it was not possible to send messages to the entire group. [1] http://lifehacker.com/google-voice-gets-native-mms-support-brings-verizon-in-1656985058 http://lifehacker.com/google-voice-gets-native-mms-support-b...
- ryandvm 11y agoHangouts is "okay" at best. I continue to be amazed that companies like Microsoft and Google are so bad at instant messaging that upstarts like Slack can eat their lunch with essentially hosted IRC and a pretty client.
- justlurkin 11y agoI for one wish Slack was the new standard messaging app for everything and everyone.
- pbreit 11y agoAt $5/person/month I don't think so.
- justlurkin 11y agoI just like the way it works, it doesn't have to be Slack specifically.
- seanp2k2 11y agoDefiantly not any better than Skype from 10 years ago or MSN messenger video calling. "Progress!"
- robbrit 11y agoNot so much an "upstart like Slack", more like "a giant pool of upstarts, the best of which happens to be Slack." When looking at it like this, it's easy to see why Microsoft and Google (or any big company for that matter) has trouble competing.
- enraged_camel 11y agoYou continue to be amazed? Really? Companies that specialize in one thing will always trump those who have to spread their efforts along many areas. It's the difference between depth and breadth.
- shmerl 11y agoDoes it support WebRTC phone calling from the browser? Hangouts annoys me for a number of reasons however. And the biggest one is the fact that Google used it as a pretense to kill their federated XMPP service. This literally cut more than a half of my contacts off (i.e. those who use Google), because they don't accept bugs for enabling server to server encryption anymore. I don't remember being upset about Google messing up things more than that. UDPATE: Nah, still no WebRTC. Hangouts - fail. Hangouts needs the Google Talk plugin to make calls.
- Nullabillity 11y agoReally? I'm 99% sure that it's been using WebRTC for about a year now.
- shmerl 11y agoIt might be using it partially, but it still relies on that plugin blob. No idea why they can't use a pure WebRTC solution.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- Nullabillity 11y agoAccording to what I can find it doesn't use a blob under Chrome. Perhaps it's using a browser whitelist?
- shmerl 11y agoI'm using Firefox.
- wsinks 11y agoHey there! So just to understand how you use your clients, you want something that can federate XMPP (so you can chat with everyone that you've chatted with beforehand), but also be able to escalate upwards to a WebRTC call?
- nkoren 11y agoCan I actively control my visibility settings, as with every other IM client? Inability to control my own visibility makes Hangouts an absolute non-starter for me, and many other people that I talk to. Our only choice is to keep it turned off at all times. Which is a shame, because Google Chat used to be my go-to messaging client.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- mrbig4545 11y agoThey should just concentrate on making it work properly on android The amount of times it thinks I'm in a call and I'm not is far too many. Or it doesn't dial. Or doesn't ring. And if turn the video on there's a good chance it'll crash so hard I'll have to force stop it. Which is a shame as I really like hangouts Also the sms part should be better integrated, why can't I view/send sms on my phone from gmail?
- omouse 11y agoand still backwards incompatible with XMPP? greeeat
- rcarmo 11y agoI wish they'd stop guzzling battery on iOS. On my iPhone, the two top background activity apps are Facebook and Hangouts, neither of which (sadly) I can actually get rid of since I use the first for work (seriously...) and the second to be reachable to Android users.
- yoasif_ 11y agoXMPP continues to work for Google Chat, so there may be better iOS Google Chat clients. Sorry, I haven't used any, so I can't offer any recommendations. ChatSecure seems to offer OTR compatibility, so that may be a decent option: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chatsecure-encrypted-secure/id464200063 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chatsecure-encrypted-secure/... and should be compatible with OTR Jabber clients on Android like Conversations.
- rcarmo 11y agoXMPP works for Google Chat in the sense that you can talk to other people who use Google Chat, but not Hangouts - at least not in my roster... So Hangouts is effectively a segregated quasi-XMPP thing that follows its own rules. So far, there are no real alternatives to Hangouts if you want to talk to people using Hangouts, and that's it. And the XMPP third-party client "ecosystem" is pretty much fossilised... As to ChatSecure and other alternatives, they all seem somewhat iffy. Before moving back to iOS, I wrote this: http://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2014/11/13/0830 http://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2014/11/13/0830 ...and it's still all mostly valid.
- verelo 11y agoDoes anyone else find that, the awfully slow, Hangouts app (on Mac?) randomly open every minimized window? If it wasn't integrated with gmail and we didn't have everyone in the company already using it, Hangouts would be the first product I'd move away from.
- V-2 11y ago> We’ve been obsessively fixing bugs and speeding up message delivery to make Hangouts faster and more reliable. Well, that would be quite a feat if they managed to make it less reliable. The latest version I tried to use was ridiculously buggy, crashing, couldn't join a conversation etc. I was so boggled by how bad it was (Google's app, on Google's OS) I even forgot to be angry for a while
- eneve 11y agothanks the gods.... hopefully it's better
- x0054 11y ago> (iOS users recently got many of the same updates). How is it that Google is still "iOS first." I mean, I love my iPhone and am happy that Google feels the need to update iOS apps before Android. But why? That's like Microsoft being OSX First, it just doesn't make any sense.
- Axsuul 11y agoNot necessarily. Google Hangouts is still a much integrated experience on Android. iOS also doesn't have the Dialer app for example.
- x0054 11y agoI am not super familiar with the Android App, but the iOS App does have a Dialer that allows you to make phone calls. Are you talking about something else?
- 21echoes 11y agoHangouts team has significantly more Android engineers than iOS engineers, but features and bug fixes still take longer on Android. It's as simple as that.
- pbreit 11y agoI typically don't care about naming too much but "Hangouts" is so awful.
- jtchang 11y agoDoes anyone else think there is an opportunity for an easier to work with chat/text program? Ideally it would have a semi open infrastructure like IRC. I would design it with less functionality than XMPP. The clients would be closed source. Or maybe this is Telegram already.
- jetru 11y agoGot a call on Hangouts. Didn't see who was calling. Couldn't pick up because I was too late. Can't see who called later on. Product still shit.
- lytedev 11y agoFor anybody else looking for the APK, here's the relevant Android Police article with a link to the APK. http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/08/10/dreams-do-come-true-hangouts-4-0-for-android-will-start-rolling-out-today/ http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/08/10/dreams-do-come-true-...
- abritinthebay 11y agoAs long as it crashes less and makes their (woefully unstable) Chrome Boxes need to be re-imaged/restored less... I'll take it. Hangouts is nice when it works but it's become something of a swear word at my work - even if it makes setting up a conference in a meeting room a lot easier.