Mountain View, California — Come what may! Google really, really wants you to adopt its social network Google+. In its latest move, Google will be adding Google+ Hangout video-conferencing to Gmail and its associated Google Talk instant-messaging, VoIP, and video-chat service, which according to them, will “deliver higher reliability and enhanced quality” to your chats.
Video communication is nothing really new to Gmail. But now, armed with many new technology, Google further wants to embellish your video conferencing within Gmail even better. The company will initiate replacing Gmail’s existing video chat program with a new, better one based on the Hangouts feature from its Google+ social networking service, the company said Monday.
Fred Brewin, a Google product manager, has just announced that Google is upgrading its Gmail and its related Google Talk instant-messaging, VoIP, and video-chat service to to “a more modern video calling technology — Google+ Hangouts.”
Say hello to Gmail video conferencing…
From the Gmail blog:
Unlike the old video chat, which was based on peer-to-peer technology, Hangouts utilize the power of Google’s network to deliver higher reliability and enhanced quality. You’ll be able to chat with all the same people you did before and, in fact, with Hangouts you’ll now be able to reach them not only when they are using Gmail but also if they are on Google+ in the browser or on their Android or iOS devices.
Interestingly, this latest switch will surely enhance the quality and performance of Gmail video chats, and, if users have Google+ accounts, they will be able to communicate with multiple people — up to nine participants as long as all have Google+ accounts. So far, Gmail’s video chat feature has allowed only for one-to-one sessions.
Another nifty feature is that Google+ Hangouts allows up to ten people to talk in a video-conference at once, collaborate on documents, share their screens, and broadcast their conversations to the Internet. In addition, with Google+ Hangouts on Air you can also broadcast to a world-wide audience via YouTube.
On the other hand, if you wish to reap the most from this techno-wonder service, you will need to join Google’s social network, Google+. Berwin explained, “All Gmail users will benefit from this upgrade, but if you and the person you are chatting with also use Google+, you will get even more from the Hangouts experience.”
Apparently, Gmail and Google Talk were always exceptional free services, now with free small-group video-conferencing Google’s communication services are increasingly becoming not just of interest to individuals but to workgroups and small businesses as well.
Moving forward, Google mentions that the new integration will be rolled out to all Gmail users gradually over the coming weeks, starting with personal Google Accounts and then moving to Google Apps, the cloud-based collaboration and e-mail suite for organizations that includes Gmail.
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