Google+ has never been out of the news section, since it has been launched. Every update is something, which one can use and accordingly know more and more. Yet again, there is an update, which will help a number of users who do not have a webcam, or have a faulty webcam. This updates relates to the Google+ video conferencing feature “Hangouts” that will make video chats more accessible to everyone. The update helps users to make use of Hangouts, without using a webcam. An example for the same is followed.
If one wants to virtually chat with their family over Christmas, but their parents or grand parents do not have a webcam, they can now maker use of Hangouts and their relatives will be able to see the individual. This is possible as there has been an integration of a dial-in voice service that works basically on Google Voice. This would help camera-less participants to take part in video chats and see their relatives, sitting somewhere in the other part of the world.
“Nearly everyone has a telephone, and today we’re making it possible to dial-in anyone, from almost any country, directly into your hangout,” said Google senior vice president of Engineering Vic Gundotra.
Talking about the charges, it was stated that if one tries to makes such a call from within Google+ Hangouts, it would not charge them if it is in US or Canada. If one intents to look out for the pricing of international calls can be found at https://www.google.com/voice/rates?p=hangout.
However, this new update will help things to be a mix of a number of things. As the integrated service now allows users to chat, watch and talk, wherein the users can opt for any 1 or 2 or all the three at a time, it makes things buzzing, without interfering in the preferences of others.
Hangouts are turning out to be an integral part of Google+ and expectedly will be the stand out feature of the same if noted. Again, it is more prominent even now within the Google+ social network as one can opt to make the appearance look bigger. This could have appeared as a status update, but there is a possibility that it can be quickly missed if one’s G+ feed is buzzing with activity. However, now others will be able to see a notification on the right-hand side of the stream when a hangout is live.
If one gets an invitation to a Hangout, they would get a notification from Google by ringing your device when they are invited to a hangout.
Another update stuffed in this article is about expanding the scope of Hangout usage. Soon users will be able to use Google+ Hangouts with the help of their updated Android and iOS Google+ apps even on Google+ Messenger.
Expectedly, there is a competitive point too. With the inclusion of Hangouts, Google+ app on the iOS platform, one might feel that it can potentially compete with Facetime, Apple’s own iPhone, iPad and iPod video chat service. Additionally, it helps users to chat with more than just one other person.
On the competitive front, it would face stiff competition from Microsoft Skype too soon. It seems the focus of the competitiveness fluctuates constantly and now it is raging to create a fight for the Video chat service war.