Google Hangouts: Free, Informal, Flexible
December 14, 2017
Google Hangouts: Free, Informal, Flexible
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Google Hangouts
As a no-frills, but very flexible, chat client, Google Hangouts is central to my geographically dispersed team. Yes, we have IT-approved alternatives, but since Google Hangouts is so simple and readily available on just about every laptop/smartphone/tablet released in the last 5 years, it's our go-to solution.
The fact is, we don't have to think about using it -- it's many people's default chat app anyway. That's what makes it perfect.
The fact is, we don't have to think about using it -- it's many people's default chat app anyway. That's what makes it perfect.
- It's flexible. Android, iOS, MacOS, Windows... everyone has access to Hangouts.
- Voice, text, and video conferencing all baked in.
- It ties in well with Google's other services, including Drive and Gmail.
- It's free!
- Not for power users. This is a good 1-to-1 chat client -- there are enterprise grade offerings with meeting and whiteboard features, for instance.
- Google keeps messing with it! Google can't leave well enough alone, and it seems Hangouts is being broken up into various other services, including Google Duo for video chat, and Allo for messaging.
- Not corporate specific. For those looking to distinguish between work and play, using a service likely tied into a personal GMail account might be a turnoff.
- It's free, so there's no official IT deployment, so there's really no way to measure it's impact on ROI.
- That said, the company put money into its own official chat solution -- so I suppose there was some time wasted there.
- Also, Hangouts isn't built for official corporate communications. There's plenty of risk chatting about sensitive corporate info on a personal account like that.
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' flexibility.
The other 2 are more traditional corporate clients, which lack Hangouts' flexibility.
Google Hangouts (Classic) Feature Ratings
Using Google Hangouts
250 - Individual performers, managers, and VPs, ranging from Editorial to Marketing to Operations to Human Resources to Accounting, and everything in between use Google Hangouts. Even if informallly (ie: It's on my personal smartphone and a colleague uses it to get in touch).