Discovering What Hangouts Are All About
With Google+’s video, audio, and text chat functionality, you might think you’re all set for communication, but Google has an ace-in-the-hole feature called Hangouts that you really don’t want to overlook.
Hangouts are like regular video chats, except they are group chats instead of one-to-one communications. You can invite multiple people to hang out, and they can come and go from the group as and when they like. As the name suggests, it’s a great way for you and your friends to hang out while you are on your computers.
One of the great things about Hangouts is that there isn’t the pressure of a direct video chat. You can just chill out with your friends while scrolling through the web or working on your computer.
You start a Hangout by doing the following:
1. Click Start a hangout in the right-hand column.
2. By default Your circles is displayed in the Who do you want to hang out with? section (meaning that everybody will be invited). You can remove Your circles and invite custom groups by clicking the X in Your circles.
3. Click Add circles or people to share with. Type the name of a Circle or person to include in the Hangout, as shown in Figure 7-13.
4. Click Hang out.
FIGURE 7-13 Starting a Hangout.
When you start the Hangout, you see a screen saying No one is here right now. This is because you need to wait for people to join the Hangout. As they join the Hangout, they appear in a row in the bottom of the screen, and you can take part in a group chat session.
When you are on the receiving end of an invitation to a Hangout, a link to join the group appears inside your Chat box (as shown in Figure 7-14). Click the link to open the Hangout window and click Hang out to join the group.
Figure 7-14 Joining a Hangout.
Using the Hangout URL Hangouts open in separate web pages with individual URLs that are created for the Hangout and recycled into Google when you’re done. You can share the URL outside of Google+, but only people logged in to Google+ and invited to the Hangout can join in.
Using controls inside Hangouts
Everybody inside the Hangout has access to the controls (as shown in Figure 7-15). They are as follows:
+ Invite. Use this button to invite extra people to the Hangout. Click Add circles or people to share with, and then add the name of a person or group in the sidebar that appears. Click Invite.
+ Chat. Click this button to bring up a text chat sidebar. Other users can see the text chat alongside the video chat. Note that they do not get any notification that you are sending text messages unless they click Chat.
+ YouTube. Click this button and the main window turns into a YouTube display. You can search for videos and play them in the main window. Other users can see these by clicking the YouTube icon. Any person in the Hangout can play or pause the YouTube video.
FIGURE 7-15 Controls inside a Hangout.
+ Mute Video. Click this button to remove your own video feed. You are still able to see other people in the Hangout.
+ Mute Mic. Click this button to turn off your mic. You are still able to hear other people in the Hangout.
+ Settings. Click this button to adjust the camera, microphone, and speaker settings while in a Hangout. The options are the same as outlined earlier in the chapter.
+ Exit. Click this button to leave a Hangout.
All people in the Hangout have equal access to the same controls; there’s no leader or moderator of the group. Even if you originally set up the Hangout, you can’t remove people, although you can leave at any time.
Muting other people in Hangouts
If you are unhappy with what a person is saying (or just want to keep someone quiet for a while) you can mute him:
1. Hover your mouse over the person in the Hangout.
2. Click the Remote mute participant icon that appears.
3. Click Mute now in the menu bar that appears in the top of the screen.
4. Click Close (or wait for the menu bar to disappear).
You are no longer able to hear the person you mute (although other people in the Hangout can still listen to him). To unmute a person, you follow the same action but click Cancel instead of Mute now.
Blocking someone in Hangouts
If you don’t like hanging out with someone, you can block her. Do this by performing the following:
1. Hover your mouse over the person in the Hangout.
2. Click the red block person icon that appears.
3. Click Block.
The person’s video feed is replaced with a blank red screen and a no entry symbol (as shown in Figure 7-16). The blocked person sees you disappear from the Hangout (as if you’d exited it).
FIGURE 7-16 A person blocked in Hangouts.
The user that you’ve blocked is not rejected from the current Hangout (after all, that person may also be chatting to people who don’t want to block him or her), but you and the other person are no longer able to see or talk to each other.
It’s important to note that people you have blocked are not able to join a Hangout with you in future; they will get a message that a person in the Hangout has blocked them. And you won’t be able to join a Hangout that already has a blocked person inside it.
A person you have blocked from Hangouts is removed from your Circles, and you are no longer able to chat with him, comment on his posts, or see each other’s public posts. If you block people, they will find it difficult to communicate with you via Google+, which may be a good thing, but you should use it wisely and not on a whim.
If you change your mind and decide that you want to be able to talk to that person after all, you can unblock her. You cannot unblock a person in the Hangouts; instead, you do it through the Circles interface:
1. Click the Circles icon.
2. Click More actions and choose View blocked.
3. Find the person in the list of blocked people and click Unblock.
4. Click Add to circles and choose a Circle to add the person to.
5. Click Done.
You are now able to join Hangouts with that person again, as well as chat and comment on his posts (and that person is able to do the same with you). Chapter 5 has more information on Circles.