When it comes to VoIP and video chatting solutions, it’s common to find that Skype is the first program to jump to your head. There are many other tools, however, that can do Skype’s job the same or better than the Microsoft application itself.
Today, we’re looking at Google+ Hangouts, a free web-based tool that anyone with a Google account can use. You’ll want to set up a Google+ profile to go with your Google account, add a few people to your circles, and you’ll be good to go.
To start a hangout, the user navigates to the Hangouts section of the Google+ interface, then clicks Hang Out. After accepting a few terms of use agreements, a start page is displayed that prompts the user to name their hang out (for example, Tuesday Business Meeting) and invite people. People can be invited individually, or an entire circle can be invited (I usually invite my Nerd on the Street Productions circle, for instance.) There’s also a checkbox on the page allowing the user to toggle Invite Only mode. When Invite Only is off, anyone from the Internet can join; I strongly recommend against that. When Invite Only is on, only people invited by you or other members of the hangout can join.
Anyone that is invited to the hangout will receive an email, as well as a notification in the top right of any Google windows they might have open. Additionally, when navigating to the Hangouts page of the Google+ web site, you can see if any of your friends are hosting a hangout that you can join. Clicking the Join Hangout button prompts the user to accept the terms, displays a preview of what others on the hangout will see, and adds the user to the hangout upon confirmation.
Unlike Skype, Google+ does not require a desktop application, though the Google Voice cross-platform browser plugin has become a requirement. The Hangout takes place in a web page window, and even though you can’t put it in a tab, it’s compatible with all major browsers.
Google+ puts center stage on whoever’s talking in the conversation—in a video chat, whoever’s microphone is making the most noise shows their webcam in the center of the page, and for someone without a video feed, the user profile picture displays instead. If any participant wants to focus on another member, they can easily click the preview-sized version of their media feed below the center stage. All participants can always be heard, unless the host of the hangout (or you) mutes them. There are multiple quality settings for this media.
The left sidebar in the Hangout interface is what really sets Google+ apart from Skype. It takes just a few clicks to open up a text chat sidebar, share your desktop, upload and share documents on your Google Drive, and even watch YouTube videos together (with synchronized timing.) These goodies aren’t just fun to play with: they make Google+ a valuable tool for business.
Oh yeah, and did I mention YouTube integration? If you’re a YouTube partner, you can livestream your entire Google+ Hangout to YouTube using the Hangouts on Air feature, making multi-camera production extremely easy. No additional plugins are required to do this, either.
Google+ Hangouts are new, fun, and require very little setup. You can invite people with their Gmail addresses without adding them to your contacts first, and you can easily open up a large conference call with up to 10 people using circles. But how does it perform next to Skype?
The web-based interface definitely makes compatibility a win. Other than that, I’ve heard it both ways. Some say that Google+ uses less bandwidth than Skype. Others say that Skype is more reliable than Google+. Either way, Google+ Hangouts is a valuable collaboration tool. If you’re a Skype user but you enjoy Google’s services, then I strongly suggest that you try Google+ Hangouts for yourself.