The classic version of Google Hangouts included messaging, voice, VoIP, and video call capabilities. It was replaced by the Hangouts Chat collaboration tool, and Google continues to support conferencing via the new Hangouts Meet.
N/A
Slack
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Slack is a group messaging or team collaboration app that aims to simplify communication for businesses. Features include open discussions, private groups, and direct messaging, as well as deep contextual search and message archiving, and file sharing. Slack integrates with a number of other tools, such as MailChimp, Dropbox, and Google Drive. Slack was acquired by Salesforce in December 2020.
The product is free to use, and also has paid plans with more features and greater controls.
The…
$8.75
per month per user
Pricing
Google Hangouts (Classic)
Slack
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Free
$0
Pro
$7.25*
per month per user
Business+
$12.50*
per month per user
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google Hangouts (Classic)
Slack
Free Trial
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
—
*Per active user, per month, when paying once a year.
Pro is $8.75 USD per active user when paying month to month. Business+ is $15.00 USD per active user when paying month to month.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Google Hangouts (Classic)
Slack
Considered Both Products
Google Hangouts (Classic)
Verified User
Team Lead
Chose Google Hangouts (Classic)
We were upgraded from Google Chat, which in some ways is better integrated into our workflow. I personally tried out Slack, but didn't see what all the fuss was about.
Slack is most similar to Hangouts in one respect: it has a consumer-like UI and is very user friendly and flexible. However, it has enterprise-level chops and features, though most of those cost money.
The other 2 are more traditional corporate clients, which lack Hangouts' …
Google Hangouts is my favorite tool for video and audio. I like Slack for messaging because it can handle very large groups and makes many channels and group messages easy to manage. Google Hangouts is very easy to use because most people have a Google Account. No need to teach …
Even if it doesn't have all of the functionalities and possible integrations like Slack, Hangouts is a free alternative that works really well if you use it for communication purposes only. It is better than Skype in almost every aspect. Video and audio quality do not have any …
I have used Slack and Skype but both products seem more complex and less user intuitive than Hangouts. They tend to crash a lot and video calling is worse on both systems. Slack is more customizable and has more functionalities but Hangouts is simple and elegant and also it …
Slack is much better than Google Hangouts since it lets you have group conversations, having threads within a same conversation and integrating with lots of apps for making the work more fluent. Actually I would recommend trying Google chat that has some features that are …
Zoom is solid but it's a whole other thing to log in to and limited in what its focus is. Slack has the chat functionality but Google Hangouts is integrated into my every day use and I don't feel like it's yet another thing to manage and keep track of.
Best part of Google Hangouts is its simplicity, and performance. We never had connection problems, or quality interruptions, something that is more frequent with the other tools listed above.
Google hangouts (Classic), is a instant message solution with not much more to add, it lacks the screen sharing features, the broad app integration, and the video and audio conferencing of this software. As a basic instant messaging communication tool it does what it promises …
We reserve Zoom for client-facing meetings as it is the "market standard" and many are familiar with it, however for most internal meetings, we use Google Hangouts due to how light and simple it is, plus the integration with Google Calendar.
Google Hangouts [(Classic)] is better than jabber, but way behind all other business chat clients. I would much rather use any of the alternatives I have listed in place of Hangouts.
Since we use Google Suite, Google Hangouts (Classic) was the obvious choice. The ease of use and access to employees makes Google Hangouts (Classic) simple to use and access. Additionally, adding users to an existing Hangout is easy. Google Hangouts (Classic) also doesn't …
Google Hangouts provides better audio and video experience than seen with Skype. It also has the added benefit of not making you download, install, and update a program. Google Hangouts have a much better mobile application experience than Skype as well. With Skype, users have …
Google Hangouts is easier and quicker to use. It is intuitive and simple. The majority of our organization is on Hangouts, and if anyone is logged into Gmail, they are able to be contacted. There is no additional sign-in required. The app is extremely functional and easy to use.
Favorable across the board. Skype's user interface and user experience are atrocious across the board. The software is not good at all on any platform. Google hangouts works simply in a web browser (though I'd like a better mobile web experience, not just a "download our app …
Google Hangouts is free, fast, reliable and easy to use, the reason why Google Hangouts has a huge benefit against other competitors is that it's free and all the contacts within Google account are synced automatically. Google Hangouts has HD video calls and connections are …
Assistant Director of Production for Online Learning Video
Chose Google Hangouts (Classic)
We selected Google Hangouts because we already use Google for our email system and we already have a variety of Google products which makes integration very simple. There is no need to manually sync across platforms with Google. We simply login with our existing account and …
The mobile app for Skype is much heavier and has a lot of functional issues, Google Hangouts works better with Android and most of the employees of the company are Android users.
Lately some versions of desktop Skype came with lot of bugs and some of our clients dismissed its …
I like Google Hangouts more than Appear, Skype, and Zoom. While Appear is lighter and easier, it's also more limited. Skype is too slow and clunky, plus I have to install the program. And Zoom is complicated, you have to install a program, and it doesn't always work well with …
Slack is better than Google Hangouts because there is communication across different modalities. Instead of having an IM system that is private it's easy for public Slack conversations to occur so all levels of the organization are on the same page. Slack is superior because …
Slack provides a way to monitor and manage channels and groups, which is not an option on Google Hangouts. However, Slack also allows for the admin to check conversations between 2 people on the company, and there is no way for the 2 people to be aware of that happening, this …
Before in the organization, we used Google Hangouts, but it was not well integrated into our team. The functionalities were very limited and could not cover our needs. The advice was very messy and we failed to meet the productivity objectives we had.
Slack has the best features and interface as compared to all other similar software that I have used. Features like huddle, channels, conversations, integrations, polls, and surveys make it better than other similar tools. The mobile application of Slack is also smooth and …
Verified User
Administrator
Chose Slack
Because this this tool can be used for several things such as videocalls, shortcut to create tickets in jira and so on.
Slack is a way better tool as compared to Google Chat or Google Hangout. Pumble gives a Slack alike feel and could be a good option. However, Microsoft Teams can be a tough competitor as Teams has good integrations with all Office products, Outlook, and web conferencing. And …
Verified User
Manager
Chose Slack
Before Slack, I used to use Telegram and Whatsapp, but they both were also my personal platform to chat with friends and family. This mix between personal and professional life was very damaging because it felt like I was always working. Slack gave me the possibility to feel …
I was not involved in this decision but the decision to use Slack was primarily due to the vast options and functionalities provided by the platform around - collaboration, ability to create channels for specific purposes and effective notification management.
Google products are not very easy to use and difficult to administer. Since moving from Google to Slack for our internal comms, life has been great! Top highlights of Slack over Google are its simple user interface, its brilliant and responsive and also engages work/life …
Slack is way faster and easier to use in our opinion. We tried hangouts for a bit, but it just isn't as clean or seamless. We selected Slack because of this. We operate on efficiency and speed. Time is our largest constraint so we try to maximize it, which wouldn't be possible …
Verified User
Professional
Chose Slack
Slack is my favourite tool so far. It is easy to use. It does everything that I need. I love the designer and you are free to use any email address.
In Slack it is easy to backtrack to older conversation people had when you're no the part of the channel. Also the sync-to-device from PC and mobile app is very good.
In slack, we have the option to create and discuss in various channels very easily. UI looks clean from the user's perspective. UX is also good considering the feature it possesses.
The main feature that keeps Slack above them all is the integration of various apps. One can never fully understand how many apps you can integrate with slack and make your professional life a lot simpler. Another important point is the price at which Slack is offered. It is …
Although very similar, Slack seems to be more geared toward professional chats than Google Hangouts.
Verified User
Manager
Chose Slack
With Hangouts, it's difficult to keep all of your chats organized if you're chatting with more than a few people at a time. Slack's interface keeps all of that extremely organized and their notifications make it easy to see who has recently tagged you in something or sent you a …
Slack was designed specifically to a work/business environment, so it stacks up pretty well against most competitors. I think they actually created a new industry standard. Nobody was controlling the "team/company communications tool" space before. And they are updating the …
Had I completed this review a couple years ago, I would have given a rating of 9 or 10 as Hangouts (Classic) is an excellent product. However, now that Google Chat has succeeded Hangouts, I would not recommend that any new users begin using it where other more modern options are available. Android users who want an internet based instant messaging that also supports calling and video calling could benefit from using Hangouts (Classic) as Google Chat requires the user to also have Google Meet installed to make video calls and there is no voice only calling option.
Slack is great for tracking commits to new coding projects. You can take parts of code that still need to be implemented later and easily search through the history of comments if there is something that goes wrong with a code commitment. It can be difficult for people that only like Teams to adjust to a new platform if you are using both to communicate.
I would like to see improved video support, so that saved videos can be sent back and forth via Hangouts more easily, without having to start a separate meet chat
More pronounced notifications of messages would be helpful; pop up notifications are good, but once there is one, additional messages do not pop up
Custom muting times would be great, so that if I am in a 90 minute Zoom meeting, I can set it for that time; right now, it is 1 hour or 2 hours. Easy to forget.
Would love a better integration with GitHub. For example, notifications when your PR is updated, when review is requested, @-mention in comments, etc.
Improved "Later" tab, for example the ability to create to-do lists or making the "Later" tab into a more powerful to-do list (annotate items with notes)
More powerful integrations, e.g. Google Calendar could render a calendar view within Slack, rather than sending the daily schedule
To be more transparent, I give 10 because Slack serves our collaboration needs. It provide us a good platform for team communication relaying important update within the company, it has even mobile app where you can install in your phone to monitor any updates within that team that needs your immediate attention and intervention.
The tool is almost self-implemented. It is likely to be available in every pc or mobile device a user or potential user might have, and all you need to do is adding the company's account and you are done. Once you are setted up, you have almost all actual communication methods available in one tool
My rating was 7. Its intuitive interface and user-friendly features like channels, threads, and integrations make it excellent for team communication and onboarding. However, its usability is held back by the resource-intensive desktop app and cluttered feeling in large workspaces. The mobile app's performance and unreliable notifications have also been noted as weaknesses.
Yes, the app works 24/7. I don't even recall having any period that we could not use since the implementation. Even the maintenance periods are barely noticeable and our work is not impacted by it when it happens.
Slack is a soft app, we don't have many issues with it. I recall one or two people complaining about something during our usage period, but I didn't have a bad experience. When the app is slow, usually the problem is with my computer or my internet. The app works just fine.
Google Hangouts works great and does not require a lot of work to troubleshoot. Everything is simple and easy to use. Google provides all of the tools that one requires to utilize Google Hangouts and any information can be found in the built-in help tools. There is also a forum for users to report issues and typically, Google responds well and will try to work out any issues.
Whenever I've had to troubleshoot an issue with Slack (which, to be honest, has not happened very often), their online documentation has been easy to locate, easy to understand, and effective in resolving my issue. Slack's ever-growing popularity also means that there's a large community of practice out there that can be depended upon.
Google is the white cotton socks of the conferencing world. It’s a great ad-hoc tool, but not too much more. If you are not looking to spend money or operate completely on WiFi (without data charges), it’s a great free option as well. The benefit of being free and open is also the liability. It doesn’t have a great integration story with other corporate tools, but [it doesn’t have to] if you aren’t looking for that. All in all, it’s as helpful and ubiquitous as a public payphone…without the pay…and with a video capability.
I like Slack better than ClickUp, because I would spend 30-60 minutes a day updating my ClickUp tasks. The way ClickUp was used was very micromanaging. I billed by the hour, so I was willing to put in the time to alert the boss what tasks I was working on.
One of my jobs used Hive - I mostly just ran it in the background in case anyone messaged me. I did not use it often.
I believe it was part of the google suite that was purchased. It was worth the cost as it was cheaper. I believe it is now free, but also becoming deprecated. It is much better to use Teams, Discord, Telegram, etc. Google does not provide enough support or features to make using hangouts worth it these days.
Slack has been incredibly helpful in connecting various tech apps and ecosystems, creating a more streamlined and responsive process.
Slack has made it significantly easier to communicate with our team members across multiple time zones, creating a more engaging environment for our all-remote team.