> don't understand the difference between status and presence That just taught me to use Hangouts for conversations where I don't need (but might welcome) a re

> don't understand the difference between status and presence That just taught me to use Hangouts for conversations where I don't need (but might welcome) a realtime reply. Hangouts are in a nebulous zone between chat and email for me. For me, if I absolutely need an instant reply, I really need to call the person. (Even presence indicators aren't a promise that someone will prioritize your IM and reply. There's no indicator for "desperately wants to surrender absolute attention to you no matter how insignificant your topic.") With Hangouts, they stay "open" in the background, so I can have an idle conversation with new notes every few days, it doesn't bother me. I can have a hangout with multiple people when some are online and others can catch up with the conversation later. And it's less formal / less work than email. This all comes down to use case. I'd probably grant that Hangouts is a terrible new ICQ. But I've found it to be a great improvement over email for close friends.