Hanging out+

Google's hangouts feature is good value (especially since it's free). I used it quite often a few years ago, when friends in my gaming group started moving interstate/overseas. Once we discovered that we all had g-mail addresses, this seemed a logical fit to replace our tabletop sessions.

Functionally, it's like any other videoconferencing software out there, except that it's automatically linked to your g-mail address and Google account. Someone starts the hangout, and invites other people in. People's propics show up when they're speaking, or a live stream from their webcam, if enabled. We could be individually muted, at either end. (With the state of Australian internet in 2014, people also randomly disconnected at different times. As a rule, webcams were off, so reduce the lagging time.) We used the hangout to communicate with each other while viewing an interactive presentation on another website.

What was interesting about hangouts at the time was its position in the digital mediascape. Hangouts were a built-in competition with Skype, which functioned much worse – at least in this country – even to the extent of allowing phone calls between Google accounts. I could be sitting at my desktop in Australia, calling my friend who had Google+ (RIP) installed on his mobile phone, thanks to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP).

Alternatively, while looking in my g-mail inbox, I can use the same taskbar to send text messages to each other, which we used to pass around private information during the game. This was great competition for other instant-messaging applications at the time, including those offered by Facebook, Lotus notes, Outlook, and 9MSN (RIP). 

Unlike Lotus or Outlook, Hangouts doesn't tend to come by default in a workplace or academic environment, unless you're in a small business like I was in, where Google/Android was their default. To me, this is another fact in their favour, as they're offering industry-standard software for mass availability.

Now I see you can use still the same taskbar for making phone calls through VOIP. This must mean that Google/Alphabet is using their size and tech power to compete with every telco. They charge for these connections, but not for hangouts, which is interesting.

Investigating further, these former functions are now split into multiple applications, which hopefully means that they each use less data & bandwidth. Hangouts still function as instant messaging and videoconferencing, though how it's different to Duo I have yet to find out. As a audio companion to interactive websites – particularly in the gaming industry – it seems to have fallen out of favour compared to Discord.

Phone calls are now split between Duo and Google Phone, both of course designed for their Pixel mobiles, to compete with the likes of Apple.

My first preference for online audio group chat is still through hangouts. Compared to others, it's very easy to use, very reliable, and very easily available.