Google+ Hangouts
Much has changed in terms of Google+ Hangouts since the network launched. In what started as a cool feature that many hadn’t heard of, hangouts are now a staple of everyone’s Google+ experience. Not only has Google continued to push this feature via sponsored hangouts with Obama, The Dalai Lama, Conan O’Brien, and even Steven Spielberg; Google+ also now has a dedicated section/page just for hangouts.
The new Google+ Hangouts section
To access the Hangouts page (Figure 12), simply click the Hangouts icon on the left side of the Google+ navigation bar. At the top of the screen is a red Start a Hangout button, which you can click to easily start your own hangout and invite others to join. At the top of the page in the Hangouts to Join section is a list of hangouts that are open to the public for you to join and participate in. Below that section is a list of the Featured Hangouts that Google has chosen to highlight. This is where you will find the recordings of a Google+ hangout with Obama or The Muppets (yup, that happened). The last section, Hangouts to Watch, at the bottom of your screen, contains on-air hangouts that you can watch live as they are recorded by other Google+ users.
Figure 12. The Google+ Hangouts page gives you all of the information you could possibly want to use Hangouts on the network.
Colby’s Quick Tips
You have the ability to start a hangout via a Google Chat IM. Simply click the icon that looks like the Hangouts icon at the top of a chat window to start a hangout and invite the user you are chatting with to the hangout.
Inside a Google+ hangout
When you start a hangout, a window pops up that allows you to name your hangout (Figure 13), invite other Google+ users to join you, and enable the incredibly powerful Hangouts On Air feature, which allows you to record your hangout and automatically send it to your YouTube channel so you can make simple edits and share it with the world.
Figure 13. The window that pops up when you attempt to start a hangout.
Colby’s Quick Tips
What if some of your friends don’t have Google+ accounts? You can easily reach them by dialing their telephone number. To utilize this feature, simply click the Telephone button at the top of this intro window.
Once you have clicked the blue Hang Out button on the opening window, your hangout will start and you’ll be taken to the main Hangout window (Figure 14). On the left side of the screen is the navigation sidebar for hangouts. Here you can invite more Google+ users to the hangout, open a text chat box, enable the Screenshare feature, and engage with any number of hangout apps that have been created by a growing developer community.
Figure 14. The main screen of a Google+ hangout.
At the top of the Hangout window is the name of the hangout, if one was given. Taking up most of the screen is the video stream of the user currently being highlighted. By default Google+ switches the user being featured based on noise, so if you begin talking, the highlighted video will change to you so others know you are speaking. At the bottom of the screen are video thumbnails of the other users in the hangout.
The right sidebar of the Hangout window displays the feature currently selected (Figure 15). The image above is the group text Chat feature.
Colby Quick Tips
You can mute your video feed and/or audio by selecting the respective icons located in the top-right corner of the Google+ Hangouts window.
Figure 15. Showcasing the Screenshare feature with another Google+ user.