In what feels like a post at least 12 months overdue we are excited to report that ion the latest update to Hangouts you will now find support for Direct Sharing. Direct Sharing was introduced in Android 6.0 – Marshmallow – adding a new quick sharing option for 8 frequently/ recently used share contacts.
Direct Sharing has been sticking out as a missing feature in Hangouts since it launched, and for regular users of Hangouts as well as other messaging platforms was a real inconvenience compared to many 3rd part apps. Why is took the Hangouts team so long to implement a new Google messaging feature we’ll never know, what we do know is that we’re glad it’s here now.
We haven’t spotted anything else new in version 10 as yet so this may be the only major change, albeit it a welcome one. With Allo only months away from release following its announcement at Google I/O 2016 the fate of both Hangouts and all of Google’s messaging strategies is still somewhat unclear.
Google is no stranger to killing off a service, even one with a zealous following. Many of us at Ausdrodi use Hangouts for one reason or another so if that do “sunset” it, we hope that whatever replaces it brings all the existing functionality and more.
You never know if Allo is released as an open standard for developers in the future we could even see Hangouts support it?
If you don’t have hangouts installed and want to try it out again hit the link below.
Have you been waiting for Direct Share to come to Hangouts? Will this change how often you choose to use Hangouts? Let us know below.
