The updated Google Hangouts App, which was announced last week just prior to the release of the Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 at their ‘Morning With Google’ Google+ event has just arrived in Google Play and is rolling out to users who have it installed as an update.
The new version – 2.0.122 – brings about the three major features announced at the event – Location Sharing, SMS Integration and animated GIF integration. The full list from the What’s New section :
- SMS & MMS (Android 4.0+): Send/receive text messages with Hangouts! You can import your existing messages, quickly switch between SMS and Hangouts, and start group MMS conversations
- Animated GIFs: send animated GIFs, cute kittens and all
- Location: share a location in your conversations
- Device, in-call, mood status: share what device you’re on, whether you’re on a call, or your current mood
Users who downloaded and side-loaded the APK which was ripped from the Nexus 5 system dump, when the Factory Image went live on the Nexus Factory Images page, reported issues with video calling and from comments, this version appears to resolve that issue.
Of course, if you don’t want to use Hangouts as your default SMS client, we recommend you try out 8SMS which Buzz had a look at last week, it’s essentially the stock SMS app with a few tweaks.
Have you tried out the new Hangouts? What’s your favourite new feature? Any issues?
I sure hope there’s an option to remove/hide the Location button. I find it annoyingly way too easy to press on other msg apps.
ok not quite as bad as I thought as you have to also click another two times to actually send your location info.
seriously makes that app horrendous, the SMS integration is horrible, thank god you can switch off
how so..???? i thought it just noted sms on the avatar and that’s about it..? business as usual..
mainly because it keeps SMS and hangout messages seperate even from the same user, e.g. you have a convo in hangouts with person A but also use SMS with person A, person A will show up as 2 seperate people 1 SMS and one Hangout,.. just not that great IMO
i guess that statement was a little overblown. I guess I just like the idea of the way iMessage works
Disconnect from wifi and MMS works fine.
This issue seems to be fairly isolated; I was able to send MMS just fine while on WiFi.
Still on version 1.2.018. Doesn’t seem to have rolled out yet. Am i the only one?
nope, same here Sean. i can see version 2 on Play, but its not offering an update. i guess uninstall/install would likely get us there.
I tried that a couple of days ago to no avail. Still don’t have it… I want it yesterday!
it’d be interesting to understand how ‘rolling out’ effects end users, many of whom can see the update but aren’t offered an option to download. has this been looked into at any point by anyone?
It rolls out you should see it some time today. Android police have the apk if u want it now
still no update for me, wife, or work phone.
can’t send MMS either.
Can recieve mms but cannot send them?…! Other than that works flawlessly