Google Hangouts 4.0 launches today

Google has announced the launch of the latest version of Google Hangouts for Android devices taking the app up to version 4.0 and bringing with it a simpler, faster interface with some new features. The Google development team says they are striving to make Hangouts easy to use so that conversations “just flow” without the technology getting in the way of communication. 

With this update, Google brings their material design concepts to Hangouts which means the app is now “sleeker.” Google says items on the screen now respond in a more intuitive way and transitions are more fluid than they have been in the past. As part of the design update, Google added a new Compose button that can be used to launch a new conversation or start a new group message. The contacts list has been streamlined to help you find contacts more quickly. Google says the app now supports the sharing of multiple photos at once along with emoji, GIFs, and your location.

Google also indicates they have made several bug fixes and performance improvements. These were designed to make message delivery quicker and more reliable. Another benefit of this work is that the app should consume less battery power when running.

In a related update, Google also made some improvements to the Hangouts Dialer used for making calls. This includes being able to set the Outbound Caller ID now. Users can also receive and reply to group MMS messages using Google Voice.

Hangouts also has support for Android Wear so users can just use the command, “OK Google, send a Hangouts message” to get started. The team also added back custom status messages for those times when you are unavailable and the stock messages just don’t cut it.

The update has started rolling out to Android users today, but it may take a few days to show up as available for your account.

source: Google

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