Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it ultimately determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication implement to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I eyed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the fattest budge the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it contest feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, tho’ both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, ultimately

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years ultimately has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a puny frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Brink

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it eventually determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication device to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I witnessed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the fattest budge the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it rival feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, tho’ both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, tho’, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, ultimately

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years eventually has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a petite frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Brink

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it eventually determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication contraption to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I witnessed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the largest stir the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it contest feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, eventually

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years ultimately has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a petite frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Brink

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it eventually determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication device to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I witnessed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the thickest stir the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it contest feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, eventually

Primarily, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years ultimately has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a petite frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Brink

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it ultimately determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication device to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I spotted is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the largest stir the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it rival feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, eventually

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years ultimately has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a puny frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Brink

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it ultimately determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication implement to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I eyed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the thickest budge the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it rival feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, eventually

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years ultimately has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a petite frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Brink

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it ultimately determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication device to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I spotted is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the fattest stir the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it contest feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, eventually

Primarily, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years ultimately has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a puny frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Edge

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it ultimately determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication device to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I witnessed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the thickest budge the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it contest feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, tho’ both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, ultimately

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years eventually has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a petite frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Brink

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it eventually determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication contraption to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I spotted is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the largest budge the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it rival feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, tho’ both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, eventually

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years eventually has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a puny frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Brink

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it ultimately determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication contraption to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I witnessed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the fattest budge the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it contest feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, eventually

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years ultimately has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a petite frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Edge

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it ultimately determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication instrument to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I spotted is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the fattest stir the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it challenge feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, tho’, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, eventually

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years ultimately has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a petite frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Edge

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it eventually determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication contraption to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I eyed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the thickest budge the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it challenge feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, tho’, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, ultimately

Primarily, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years eventually has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a puny frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Edge

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it eventually determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication implement to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I spotted is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the thickest budge the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it challenge feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, ultimately

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years ultimately has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a puny frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Edge

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it eventually determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication device to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I eyed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the largest stir the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it rival feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, tho’ both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, ultimately

Primarily, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years ultimately has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a puny frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Edge

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it ultimately determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication device to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I spotted is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the fattest budge the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it challenge feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, eventually

Primarily, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years ultimately has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a petite frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Edge

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it eventually determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication implement to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I eyed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the fattest budge the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it rival feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, tho’ both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, tho’, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, eventually

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years eventually has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a puny frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Brink

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it ultimately determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication device to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I witnessed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the fattest budge the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it contest feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, tho’, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, ultimately

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years ultimately has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a puny frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Edge

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it ultimately determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication contraption to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I eyed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the thickest stir the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it challenge feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, tho’ both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, tho’, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, eventually

Primarily, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years eventually has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a puny frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Edge

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it eventually determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication device to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I witnessed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the thickest stir the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it rival feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, ultimately

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years eventually has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a petite frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Edge

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it eventually determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication contraption to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I eyed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the largest stir the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it contest feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, tho’, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, ultimately

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years eventually has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a petite frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Edge

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it ultimately determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication implement to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I spotted is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the largest budge the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it challenge feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, ultimately

Primarily, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years eventually has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a puny frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Edge

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it ultimately determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication instrument to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I witnessed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the largest budge the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it rival feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, eventually

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years eventually has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a puny frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Edge

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it ultimately determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication implement to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I eyed is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the thickest stir the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it contest feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, eventually

Originally, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years ultimately has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a petite frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack – The Brink

Google Hangouts is getting a major overhaul to take on Slack

If you know anything about Google’s messaging strategy in the last few years, you know that it’s been a bit of a mess. Allo, the consumer app, launched without the cross-platform features users expect. Text messaging on mobile is mired in inter-carrier warfare. And Hangouts has become a punchline.

On two of those fronts, Google has been making progress. And today, in a bit of a surprise, Google has signaled that it eventually determined Hangouts is supposed to be: a business communication instrument to complement its consumer apps. We’re now getting a peek of what that means — and if the early demo I spotted is any indication, it might be time to stop making joy of Hangouts.

That’s because Hangouts is turning into a group talk system that looks a hell of a lot like Slack. Like Microsoft, Google is launching a Slackalike — and like Microsoft, it’s betting that deep integration with the rest of its office suite is going to be catnip for IT managers and cost-conscious CFOs.

A remarkably rich feature set at launch

Hangouts Talk will still suggest direct one-on-one talks, and it will also still work natively on the web, Android, and iOS. But the fresh group talk rooms — which also suggest threaded messages — are perhaps the fattest stir the app has made since its launch in 2013.

The core features of Hangouts Talk play on Google’s strengths. It’s deeply integrated into Google Docs and Sheets — and can assign document permissions automatically based on the team that created them. As you might expect, Google is also touting the search features inwards the app. It will let you filter by rooms, people, file types, or even links that were dropped in the room.

Google is also launching with some extensibility options: users will be able to create “app scripts” to have bots do work inwards the talk, and it will permit third-party companies to create apps that integrate with Hangouts Talk. Google is using that feature itself, creating a bot it calls @meet that can look at the schedules of anybody in a group talk and automatically suggest a meeting time — then schedule it directly in Google Calendar.

Will it rival feature for feature with Slack (or even Microsoft Teams) at launch? Perhaps not — but it doesn’t have to in order to be a big improvement over Hangouts today. More importantly, it could be a minimum viable product for a lot of businesses that use Gmail and Google Calendar but don’t want to pay for Slack. In tech, Good Enough combined with You’re Already Paying For It has a way of ending arguments that a feature comparison can’t.

Google tells me that when it becomes generally available (right now it’s only available to businesses in the Early Adopter Program), some of the business features will be limited to G Suite users. For regular old Gmail users, when it becomes available Hangouts Talk will go after a “fremium” model — which means that anybody will be able to download and attempt it out, but we don’t know for sure what features will cost money.

Better movie talk

Speaking of meetings, Hangouts Talk will integrate with a big upgrade to the Hangouts movie talk service, now dubbed “Hangouts Meet.” (Yes, the naming is confusing and dumb.) Google says that the fresh movie talk will be much less likely to spike your processor or grind your computer to a halt. The lighter-weight version of the app evidently means that up to thirty participants can join. There is no need to install a plugin on Chrome or Firefox, however both Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will still require one until they buck up and support the Web RTC standard.

More importantly, however, setting up a movie meeting should be a lot lighter going forward: guests who aren’t on the invite (or who happen to have clicked into the meeting) will be able to “knock” and ask to join more lightly. Enterprise customers will also get a dial-in number automatically — no third-party plugin required — and tapping the calendar entry from an iPhone or Android phone will open up the phone app with the number and the meeting ID ready to dial.

A coherent direction for Hangouts, ultimately

Primarily, Hangouts Talk will only be available to companies in Google’s “early adopter” program, and it’s not clear which features will cost money and which ones won’t — but we expect it will be available to all G Suite users and we know it will be generally available to all Gmail users in that “fremium” model. What is clear is that an app that’s essentially been flailing for years eventually has a north starlet: corporate collaboration.

Google Hangouts has been having an identity crisis ever since Google attempted to relaunch it as an end-all, be-all replacement for Gchat. It’s been ping-ponging inbetween Google Plus, business movie talk, Google Voice, Project Fi, SMS, and lord knows what else. Focusing on business talk seems like a better strategy — and gratefully one that doesn’t feel beholden to some other Google product with a dubious future. Hangouts is fully a Google Cloud / G Suite product now, and it will be developed for those users.

For holdouts who were hoping Google would just turn Hangouts into its straight-on WhatsApp / Facebook Messenger competitor, this direction might be a puny frustration. But at least it’s a direction.

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