Hangouts
Google Hangouts for Android has received an update over night, or at least Google has begun the usual long, slow process of rolling it out to the more than 100 million – 500 million users who currently have the app installed.

The update brings about one of the most requested updates to the app – the ability to see who is online – as well as a host of new features which are now listed on the Hangouts entry in Google Play :

  • You can finally see who is on Hangouts! When you start a new Hangout, green icons show who’s on, and gray shows who’s not.
  • Contacts are now organized by People you Hangout with, Suggested People, and Other Contacts.
  • Long press contacts in the New Hangout screen to hide them.
  • Invites are now above your conversations so they’re easier to find.
  • Pinch-to-zoom photos!

Hangouts Screenshot - Current Status

The update is slowly rolling out, but the APK has been leaked and if you’re that way inclined you can sideload it but the usual warnings on doing so are in effect : who knows where the APK has been or what’s been done to it etc. I’ll be waiting for this one to rollout naturally but it looks like a great update.

Do you use Hangouts, WhatsApp, Viber or something else, or are you waiting patiently for BBM?

Source: Randall Sarafa.
Via: Engadget.

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    nevetsg

    will it still run like Shyte on my elderly mobile? Prob. I will stick to the Gtalk app.

    vijay alapati

    hangout is nice, But some issue i found is cannot make a video call to gtalk user (who didn’t upgrade to hangout yet, might be issue with backward compatibility)
    Cannot send videos, Location, Files, come on google, U can do it.
    Also seen many people requesting for SMS integration like imessages
    I dont think google will do it, as they try to maintain the consistency of their apps between all platform (Apple will never agree for this change on their OS), So i think this will not happen

    Peter Massey

    I love Hangouts!

    The GUI definitely needs some tweaking but the core idea is brilliant. Looking forward to this update!

    Slowly converting all my Android friends to it and even a few iOS who want to talk to me (screw iMessage!)

    EDIT: *cough*Play Store link box at end of article*cough* ;).