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Like most new Google things, it doesn't seem to be enabled for my Google Apps account. There's no clear indication of how to do this (if it's possible at this p

by masnick 13y ago

Like most new Google things, it doesn't seem to be enabled for my Google Apps account. There's no clear indication of how to do this (if it's possible at this point). Say what you want about Apple, but onboarding for iMessages and Facetime did not require navigating a byzantine admin panel. I understand that Google Apps is a different beast, but there's something to be said for a chat service _just working_ in the way that iMessages does: you put in someone's phone number (or email) and if they are registered it works. I recently tried to use my non-Google Jabber account with a friend who's on Gmail. Apparently Google no longer allows invites from non-Google Jabber accounts in the chat built into Gmail. Getting chat to work with a new contact even just between Gmail accounts would sometimes require some pretty opaque incantations -- and with external Jabber accounts it's even worse! There's no indication that your invite didn't go through to them, and I was never able to get his invite to come through to me. tl;dr Based on my prior experience with Google and their IM products, I'm not convinced this could be an iMessage/Kik/WhatsApp replacement. Will my mom be able to use it?

6thSigma 13y ago
You are comparing a company launching on its own platform to a company launching on someone else's closed platform.
- masnick 13y ago
  I understand this; that's what I meant by "I understand that Google Apps is a different beast". Regardless, to the average end user this distinction doesn't matter. I think users will gravitate to what works well and what their friends use. I really hope this is Google Hangouts instead of Facebook Messages (ugggh). iMessages has problems of its own (TERRIBLE sync between devices), but it has the huge advantage of working for everyone with an iDevice. What I really want: 1) a service that works seamlessly between any device (like iMessages is supposed to for iOS and OS X) 2) this service should be platform-agnostic, working on any computer or mobile device 3) it should be federated like Jabber so we don't have to depend on one company 4) comparable features with the existing services: read receipts, group chat, push notifications I hope Google Hangouts is exactly this, and that they let me enable it for my Google Apps account.
  - mcintyre1994 13y ago
    Other than number 3, this seems to match hangouts, assuming it works as they say (in a way iMessage doesn't seem to for you). The killer missing feature for me is SMS though, a vast majority of people cannot use Hangouts for the vast majority of their conversations because of the Google+ requirement.
    - masnick 13y ago
      You're saying you'd like SMS integration? So if you add your friend with a dumb phone to your Hangout, they can participate via SMS? That would be awesome. I have a few friends with dumb phones that are constantly left out of iMessage conversations. I feel bad about it, but not bad enough to inconvenience myself (or pay for an SMS plan; yes I'm a terrible person). Edit: The federation thing is probably a pipe dream. No one has an incentive for supporting a federated protocol -- at this point it's either existing platforms going for lock-in (the iOS lock-in caused by iMessages is huge; it's the biggest reason I don't consider Android). I guess what I really want is iMessages that works on Android and over SMS, and doesn't suck at syncing between devices.
      - mcintyre1994 13y ago
        Sure, that's one use of it. But also friends with smartphones but not Google+, those I communicate with by SMS or WhatsApp primarily at the moment, the majority of my contacts. It's not even that I want rid of my SMS plan, although I can definitely see the benefit of that too. We basically want the same thing - iMessages that works on Android, iOS and desktop, including SMS. Google are brilliant at sync and I have no doubts that'll work great (especially now with synced notifications). If they added SMS and starting a conversation by phone number (selecting from contacts obviously), it'd be the perfect messaging app in my opinion. EDIT: Hangouts on web only work with Chrome, so that rules out a lot of devices I thought were supported. Not a big deal for me, but I guess it could break your requirements depending.
        florbs 13y ago
- coldtea 13y ago
  No, he doesn't do that anywhere in his message. He is complaining about what Google does even WITHIN it's own platform (and the web).
  - 6thSigma 13y ago
    Regardless of what Google does within its own platform, he still compared what Google did on iOS to what Apple did on iOS. FWIW, I have Android and when I downloaded and launched Hangouts it automatically logged me in. I assume iMessage was similar - but a third-party app wouldn't be for obvious reasons.
    - coldtea 13y ago
      >Regardless of what Google does within its own platform, he still compared what Google did on iOS to what Apple did on iOS. And nothing, even on this part of his complaint, was about things that Google couldn't fix because Apple didn't let them. So the "closed/someone-else's platform" remark was redundant.
evilduck 13y ago
I just tried it, it works for my Google Apps account. Maybe it's a rollout process? Though the web version seems to have problems with multiple accounts signed in at once.
- masnick 13y ago
  Looks like you're right. I found this by searching Google+ (of all places): > in case you're wondering how to enable Hangouts for your Google Apps account, found this: "Admins can enable the new Hangouts experience in the Talk settings of the Admin console. We are still rolling this out so look for it soon."
shanselman 13y ago
A useful tip about Google features and Google apps. FREE Google Apps users get them on by default. PAID Google Apps users get them OFF by default. I needed to turn on Talk and Hangouts today.
Synergyse 13y ago
http://www.googlegooru.com/how-to-enable-the-new-hangouts-functionality-in-google-apps/ http://www.googlegooru.com/how-to-enable-the-new-hangouts-fu...

by masnick 13y ago

6thSigma 13y ago

You are comparing a company launching on its own platform to a company launching on someone else's closed platform.

masnick 13y ago
I understand this; that's what I meant by "I understand that Google Apps is a different beast". Regardless, to the average end user this distinction doesn't matter. I think users will gravitate to what works well and what their friends use. I really hope this is Google Hangouts instead of Facebook Messages (ugggh). iMessages has problems of its own (TERRIBLE sync between devices), but it has the huge advantage of working for everyone with an iDevice. What I really want: 1) a service that works seamlessly between any device (like iMessages is supposed to for iOS and OS X) 2) this service should be platform-agnostic, working on any computer or mobile device 3) it should be federated like Jabber so we don't have to depend on one company 4) comparable features with the existing services: read receipts, group chat, push notifications I hope Google Hangouts is exactly this, and that they let me enable it for my Google Apps account.
- mcintyre1994 13y ago
  Other than number 3, this seems to match hangouts, assuming it works as they say (in a way iMessage doesn't seem to for you). The killer missing feature for me is SMS though, a vast majority of people cannot use Hangouts for the vast majority of their conversations because of the Google+ requirement.
  - masnick 13y ago
    You're saying you'd like SMS integration? So if you add your friend with a dumb phone to your Hangout, they can participate via SMS? That would be awesome. I have a few friends with dumb phones that are constantly left out of iMessage conversations. I feel bad about it, but not bad enough to inconvenience myself (or pay for an SMS plan; yes I'm a terrible person). Edit: The federation thing is probably a pipe dream. No one has an incentive for supporting a federated protocol -- at this point it's either existing platforms going for lock-in (the iOS lock-in caused by iMessages is huge; it's the biggest reason I don't consider Android). I guess what I really want is iMessages that works on Android and over SMS, and doesn't suck at syncing between devices.
    - mcintyre1994 13y ago
      Sure, that's one use of it. But also friends with smartphones but not Google+, those I communicate with by SMS or WhatsApp primarily at the moment, the majority of my contacts. It's not even that I want rid of my SMS plan, although I can definitely see the benefit of that too. We basically want the same thing - iMessages that works on Android, iOS and desktop, including SMS. Google are brilliant at sync and I have no doubts that'll work great (especially now with synced notifications). If they added SMS and starting a conversation by phone number (selecting from contacts obviously), it'd be the perfect messaging app in my opinion. EDIT: Hangouts on web only work with Chrome, so that rules out a lot of devices I thought were supported. Not a big deal for me, but I guess it could break your requirements depending.
      - florbs 13y ago
coldtea 13y ago
No, he doesn't do that anywhere in his message. He is complaining about what Google does even WITHIN it's own platform (and the web).
- 6thSigma 13y ago
  Regardless of what Google does within its own platform, he still compared what Google did on iOS to what Apple did on iOS. FWIW, I have Android and when I downloaded and launched Hangouts it automatically logged me in. I assume iMessage was similar - but a third-party app wouldn't be for obvious reasons.
  - coldtea 13y ago
    >Regardless of what Google does within its own platform, he still compared what Google did on iOS to what Apple did on iOS. And nothing, even on this part of his complaint, was about things that Google couldn't fix because Apple didn't let them. So the "closed/someone-else's platform" remark was redundant.

evilduck 13y ago

I just tried it, it works for my Google Apps account. Maybe it's a rollout process? Though the web version seems to have problems with multiple accounts signed in at once.

masnick 13y ago
Looks like you're right. I found this by searching Google+ (of all places): > in case you're wondering how to enable Hangouts for your Google Apps account, found this: "Admins can enable the new Hangouts experience in the Talk settings of the Admin console. We are still rolling this out so look for it soon."

shanselman 13y ago

A useful tip about Google features and Google apps. FREE Google Apps users get them on by default. PAID Google Apps users get them OFF by default. I needed to turn on Talk and Hangouts today.

Synergyse 13y ago

http://www.googlegooru.com/how-to-enable-the-new-hangouts-functionality-in-google-apps/ http://www.googlegooru.com/how-to-enable-the-new-hangouts-fu...