Google Hangouts Reviews

I am using Google Hangouts for classes online if we do not have physical lectures in the classroom. For example, a lecturer schedules a class at a specific time and then we use a link to join the video call.

The most valuable feature of Google Hangouts is the ability to record the classes that I'm not able to attend. I can use the class recording to view whatever I missed later.

Google Hangouts could improve by allowing someone to record a meeting without the need to have a company email. You cannot record with a Gmail account.

I have been using Google Hangouts for approximately three years.

Google Hangouts is stable as long as you have a reliable internet connection and there is nothing wrong with our system.

The scalability of Google Hangouts has been good in my experience. We only have a few people in the class and we haven't faced any problem with anyone having to be kicked out of the meeting because it was not able to accommodate the numbers.

We have approximately 40 people per class that are using the solution. In our whole university, I am not sure of the total number of users that are using it.

We have a number of online lectures and they have increased this year, there is a plan to increase the usage.

I have not had any problems with the need to contact support.

The initial setup of Google Hangouts is straightforward. The setup was basic, it only involves opening an application, scheduling, or starting a call immediately.

The implementation of the solution can be done in-house and it does not require a third-party implementation.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Google Hangouts a nine out of ten.

Google Hangouts is being used for virtual meetings, whether that's face to face or you're presenting your screen. There's also a whiteboard where you can brainstorm on the call itself, so that's about it.

Whatever features are on offer right now on Google Hangouts, I find all of them useful. I don't have a preference, and Google Hangouts doesn't have time limitations.

Google Hangouts is pretty good as it is, so there's nothing I would like to change about it.

I would like for the platform to have a call recording feature in the free version.

Google Hangouts is a stable platform.

Google Hangouts, being a Google product, is available and scalable. The free version works well for small-sized teams that have thirty to forty people, and that's good enough for us.

The technical support team for Google Hangouts has been pretty responsive and could solve whatever challenges arise, within a day or two.

Setting up Google Hangouts is very, very easy. You just open a Gmail account to get access to all the Google tools, including Google Hangouts. It's very easy to just set up a Gmail account, and you don't have to do anything else.

We are a small team and a small organization such as ours just uses the free version of Google, so there's no cost associated with Google Hangouts at the moment.

We evaluated Zoom and Microsoft Teams. We use Google Hangouts, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, but use Zoom more often compared to the other two platforms.

Sometimes my company uses Google Hangouts, but that's very rare. Typically, the team uses Zoom, and Google Hangouts is used once or twice a month, and that's about it. My company is an end-user, not a partner of Google.

At the moment, there's no plan of increasing the number of users of Google Hangouts.

I would rate Google Hangouts eight out of ten.

I'd recommend the platform to other people.

We're a very distributed environment. We are a group of trucking companies and we're spread out across Western Canada. We've got about 20 offices with about 250 people right across 20 offices and communicating with each other is very important and so we use Google Hangouts. It provides inter-company communication, primarily for meetings and things like that. It has reduced cell phone bills and all those sorts of things.

The screen sharing is the most valuable feature. It ties in with Google docs and Google sheets so that we can work on a single document as a whole group at once. That's the biggest feature we rely on. Other than that, it's quick communication. You can send a quick chat message if you need or you can have a long video call conference if you need as well. It is flexible. It's a very good all-around solution.

The way it works with anonymous users should be improved. That could be strengthened to let anonymous users do more.

If we could get the person that we call that doesn't have a Gmail account and to screen share would be helpful. There have been times when I actually wanted to do remote control through Google and that would be really helpful too. That would help support a lot too. 

We have been using it for around five years. 

It is stable. 

The scalability is very good. We have around 150 users who use it every day. 

It's at least half of our company that uses it pretty regularly. Our users range from data entry clerks who use the chat function to ask quick questions of their counterparts, dispatchers who communicate with other dispatchers inside that company. Managers use it for their weekly calls. It's really every level of our organization uses it.

Before Hangouts we were using a regular teleconferencing solution where we would dial the number of a code and we would pay a bill every month for the number of minutes we used. We've never used a solution like Hangouts.

The setup is complex. There are many settings buried in the Google Admin that are hard to find. It can be a pain. 

It took about a year to get people into it and to set it to the way we wanted it. It required constant tweaking.

We have seen a return on our investment and we're all very satisfied with it. I just prefer to pay what I used to.

This time last year I would've said the pricing is fantastic but Google increased their pricing recently and so our costs doubled. I don't think it's as cost-effective as it used to be. I would say it's sort of in the middle as far as cost-effectiveness now. It's the other things that come with Hangout that make it valuable. Part of its value is that it's got a whole suite of tools. I do in fact recommend it to people because of that. 

The one piece of advice I would is to be prepared regarding who else is going to use Hangouts outside of your organization. If you want people to be able to use a phone number, you have to pay for a whole different license with Google, your whole Google license has to be upgraded. Granted it has lots of other features. The dial-in feature to Hangouts is only accessible in the business class of G suite. 

If it's only your company that is going to use it, then you're great at the regular license level. But if you think you're going to have people who are required to dial in, then you need to be prepared to pay more.

I would rate it an eight out of ten.

We have a group of people that uses Google Hangouts. We chose Google Hangouts because most of the users are on Google and we don't want to use WhatsApp. We publish things like documents for all the members who are on it. I can use WhatsApp, but I prefer Google Hangouts because with Google Hangouts we can directly share our screen. If you have two or three on Google Hangouts directly, someone can share their screen, and you can see what he's doing.

The ability to share a screen during a meeting is one of the most valuable features. You can also be directly connected to the computer and on the phone with the same account. It is flexible.

We purchased a videoconference system called Zoom. We want to see if Google Hangouts has the ability to integrate our Zoom device to use it with Hangouts and meet directly. I would like for Hangouts to have a professional cloud service in which people will be able to connect the device up to and need not to go through another competitor. I'd rather just use one single service. 

I have been using Google Hangouts for five years. 

It is stable. 

If someone is using Zoom and is using Skype, the two devices can be connected directly, there is no need for a license. If someone is using Skype and issues a Google Hangouts conference code or a Meet conference code, you are not able to dial with the two devices. Skype and BlueJeans, also work together but Google and Skype directly do not. 

We have around 100 users using Hangouts in our company. 

Our support is based out of Kenya. They're good. If you have any issues, it will take them around two days to resolve it. 

Per user, we are paying $50 a month. 

Most of the companies are going to Microsoft products but Google is easier to use.

Google is a good product but it'll be better if they fix some videoconference issues. With Microsoft, you can integrate all of your devices. With Logitech and other companies, you can connect it directly through the cloud and you can use it directly, no need to go for another supplier. But with Google, you need to go with another supplier.

I would rate it an eight out of ten. 

In the next release, I would like the ability to videoconference with a connectivity plugin.

I use the solution mainly to attend meetings through a video call, especially when I have to present something and talk about it to a prospective client. I also use the tool for internal communications within my company so that I can communicate with my designer or project manager.

The features of Google Hangouts I find most beneficial for enhancing virtual communication stem from the tool's ability to provide its users with functionalities that allow them to make use of the product's sharing features. The fact that Google Hangouts is integrated with Google Calendar helps me to set up meetings easily. Most of my contact lists are in my Gmail account, making it very easy for me to pull out the details of the contacts or the potential attendees that I expect and want to invite to a meeting.

It would be better to have a feature for recording the meetings in Google Hangouts. I don't know if there is a feature in the basic version of Google Hangouts that allows for the recording of meetings, but I know that it is possible in Zoom. I think the advanced version or the licensed version of Google Hangouts may allow for the recording of meetings, but I have not explored it. Having a recording feature for the basic version of the tool would be helpful, as it is the only shortcoming of the product.

I have been using Google Hangouts for around ten years.

I have not had any issues with the stability of the product.

I have not had any issues with the scalability part of the product since I operate in a small team. In general, I don't know much about this scalability part of the product.

Only two people in my company use the product. There is an extended group of freelancers attached to my company who use Google Hangouts through their personal Gmail accounts.

I haven't had any issues with the solution's technical support. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.

Positive

I use Zoom to attend meetings. I use Zoom and Google Hangouts. Cisco Webex is a tool that I used to use fifteen years ago. I started to use Google Hangouts because of Google Workspace,which comes with functionalities that allow its users to send emails and share documents. Zoom is better than Google Hangouts when it comes to the video conference part.

The installation part of the product is easy since one generally needs to use a browser to use the product. I can use the product on my phone by just installing the application, which is a pretty easy process with which I haven't had any issues.

I don't need to buy Google Hangouts separately because it comes free with Google Workspace, and it is also available for my personal Gmail ID.

I integrate Google Hangouts into my workflow for external client meetings or presentations by using my official email ID in Google Workspace, through which I can send meeting links and make use of the calendar invite feature to ensure that the details of the meeting are automatically integrated with Google Hangouts. I just create a meeting link through the calendar invite, and then I use it.

Speaking about whether Google Hangouts integration with other Google services has added any value to my user experience, I would say that value addition doesn't come from Google Hangouts alone. When I want to share some documents or spreadsheets, it is easy to invite those who have a Gmail account with Google Hangouts.

I haven't experienced any significant issues with connectivity or quality during the calls on Google Hangouts.

I rate the overall tool an eight out of ten.

I work for a project-oriented company, and we focus on product design and development, cloud services development, etc. We have multiple virtual meetings daily, both internally and with our clients, so our primary use case for Google Hangouts is for our meetings.

The value of Google Hangouts is that it enables us to communicate project status very effectively. It also allows us to plan effectively, and get people all over the world into our virtual meetings.

An additional feature I'd like to see in Google Hangouts is more of a personal preference, e.g. it's not a pain point. There may be little differences in the way virtual backgrounds are handled, but it's no big deal.

We've been using Google Hangouts for two years. The company started standardizing the use of the platform at the beginning of the pandemic, e.g. that's when we made the shift to Google Hangouts.

I've seen some stability problems in Google Hangouts, particularly when communicating with developers in Eastern Europe, but that's to be expected given the current situation there.

The initial setup for Google Hangouts was straightforward, and I never experienced any issues with it, but it would still depend on how technical the users are, e.g. the pain points are going to differ.

I evaluated Zoom.

The company I'm working for is a big Google user, so we use Google Hangouts, and we share Google sheets, Google docs, etc. We use different Google solutions for work.

I can't think of any pain points in Google Hangouts that would make me say: "I wish it had this capability, or not." I do so many virtual meetings, and I have to think if it's going to be on Zoom, or if it's going to be on Google Hangouts, e.g. what are we using for this meeting, because we have different clients, so every once in a while, we get called into someone else's meeting, but internally, we use Google Hangouts.

I'm in very much in favor of Dev Ops, e.g. I like to see those updates come, but I have no problems with updates for this platform, because Google is normally doing something, or fixing a problem, or providing an enhancement, etc. The key is I manage when I apply updates, so it's not a problem for me. For some people, it can be a problem, but the updates don't bother me. I managed a Dev Ops environment, so we were putting out updates regularly, so we don't surprise people too often.

I have no information on the pricing of Google Hangouts, because I was not involved in that aspect.

My advice  to others looking into implementing this platform is that we've had good success with it. I have no issues. It's worked for us, and we keep using it. We're not looking at anything else, so that for me, says it all.

I'm giving Google Hangouts a rating of eight out of ten, as I rarely give nines or tens.

We use the solution for virtual meetings.

The solution is easy to use and navigate.

The scalability has room for improvement.

I have been using the solution for two years.

I give the stability a nine out of ten.

I give the scalability an eight out of ten.

We previously used Zoom and switched to Google Hangouts because it was cheaper.

The initial setup is straightforward and takes under one hour. The deployment was completed by one person. To use the solution we must set up a Gmail account and create meeting links.

The implementation was completed in-house.

There is no license cost.

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

We have 15 end users and plan to gradually increase that number.

Google Hangouts is user-friendly and I recommend it to others.

Google Meet is a clear and simple solution. If we are having network issues, it works better than other solutions. It allows us to share files during meetings. The free version is APN flexible, and installation is easy.

Google Meet could be more secure.

We have been using this solution for about two months.

It is stable.

It is scalable, and I rate the scalability a ten out of ten. We have less than five people using this solution.

We use a paid version of Microsoft Teams and Google Meet when we have network issues.

It has a straightforward setup and is not hard to complete.

I recommend Google Meet to others, and I rate it a ten out of ten.