Google Hangouts Gets A Dedicated Website After The Design Makeover Of Last Week

Google has introduced a dedicated website for its instant messaging and video chat client Hangouts after giving it a design makeover last week. You can sign-in to Hangouts by visiting hangouts.google.com.

Thanks to this dedicated website, you no longer need to open your Gmail or Google+ account to access the instant messaging service. This also means that you can do away with the Chrome apps and Extension that you had been using.

Jordanna Chord, manager for Hangouts team said in a Google+ post, “From our new site you’ll be able to take advantage of the best of Hangouts in the browser, along with an inspiring image to get you through the day,”

As can be seen in the below image, the Hangouts website has all recent conversations on the left. There are three large buttons at the centre for sending messages, making phone calls and video calls. There is also a cool background image that offers a refreshed look and feel to the website. This background image is randomly chosen and it keeps changing from time to time.

On the left top corner there is a menu button, tapping on which, you can easily switch between your contacts, conversations or phone calls. Here, settings option is also present – it lets you put a status message, change your visibility, access and change notifications, invite people to Hangouts, view and modify blocked contacts among others.

The new Hangouts website takes on Facebook’s Messenger service, which has a standalone app, a dedicated website and does not require Facebook credentials to login.

via bgr