Google+ users can now use Hangouts on iPhone, iPad | Hacker News Reader

Google+ users can now use Hangouts on iPhone, iPad

digitaltrends.com

63 pointsPaulMcCartney16 comments

Odd. I remember being able to use Hangout from my iPhone a year ago. It must have been dropped in the makeover.

Yeah I remember hanging out on my Xoom with an iPhone wielding friend to watch football together last year while we were in different states. Didn't realize the functionality had been dropped - good reason to not update if that was the case, Hangouts are Google+'s most compelling feature IMO.

I have personally been doing weekly hangouts on my iPhone for several consecutive months. This included, by the way, using that feature on an iPad 2 and using AirPlay mirroring to throw it up on an AppleTV.

The thing that actually changed is that Google+ is now a real universal app with an iPad-specific UI. The headline is misleading.

Sorry for a dumb question, in the article we see one large main picture and several smaller ones at the bottom.

Are all of those moving video, or just the large main one?

And, if all video, is it possible to split 2 windows into equal size, side by side?

Yes. All are moving video.

No, there is not a way to configure a side-by-side split.

The system does a pretty good job of detecting who is speaking at any given moment and switching the large view to contain their video.

I thought you couldn't create them on iOS until this update? I could be wrong, I don't think I ever tried to create a hangout from my phone before.

That could be. In my case, I was always responding to an invitation but never creating one.

We use Hangouts with increasing regularity. Just today I participated in one with 5 folks -- 2 from Brazil (different PCs in same office, 1 from India, and 2 from the US (different offices). It worked as well as our network allowed, which is to say good enough and much better than just using the phone (which, with VOIP, isn't always much better).

Hangouts is nice, but why did they drop Messenger from the iPad app? I used it regularly on my iPad prior to the update.

The original content is about the new APP one can now pull through iTunes. Here's Google's original post. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/google-app-for-ipad-a...

Hangouts have worked the iPhone using the Google+ App for at least a year.

That's amazing since it's less than a year since the Google+ app launched.

I did a Hangout for a work meeting recently, and the audio quality was terrible. I think we had 4 participants, and every time someone said something it would be "reverbed" like a speech in a stadium. It sucked.

Yep I had the same problem with just two participants. Then switched to Skype using the same equipment and it vastly better. I guess Skype have had years to fine-tune their technology.

As a counter-anedocte, my coworkers recently did a three person Hangout between Europe and Brazil and it worked fine, while Skype was having trouble keeping up.

I haven't used it, though.

Same thing here: hangouts work a lot better than skype (and we can even record our meetings if we are doing some kind of presentation).

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