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Blackboard Collaborate vs Google Hangouts [EOL] comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 27, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Blackboard Collaborate
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Meetings (20th)
Google Hangouts [EOL]
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

YN
Teaching and Learning Systems Manager at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
Useful in webinars, meetings and online classrooms
One of the features that people enjoy is the whiteboard, providing opportunities for academics to present content and for students to contribute. The platform also allows for the creating of different rooms, enabling large classes to break into smaller groups for discussions. Students can then return to the main classroom to share their opinions. It integrates with LMS.
Mariana-Piñeres - PeerSpot reviewer
Customer Success Manager Latam at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Recording and transcription enhance global client meetings
Google Hangouts sometimes consumes significant resources. When comparing it to WhatsApp on desktop for calls, there are instances when Google Hangouts freezes or stops working, but switching to WhatsApp runs smoothly. This might be related to the resources Google Hangouts requires. The service occasionally experiences lag issues where the image gets frozen or the voice transmission becomes interrupted. When these issues occur, possibly due to internet connectivity or other factors, WhatsApp continues to function properly while Google Hangouts does not perform well.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Document loading and annotation."
"One of the features that people enjoy is the whiteboard, providing opportunities for academics to present content and for students to contribute. The platform also allows for the creating of different rooms, enabling large classes to break into smaller groups for discussions. Students can then return to the main classroom to share their opinions. It integrates with LMS."
"The solution allows me to connect and collaborate with my classes."
"I find the sound quality of Google Meet a valuable feature. You can join Google Meet with just your phone. You only need the link of the meeting to join."
"The interface is simple and not complex."
"I think that Google Meet allows for easy interaction and has additional features, such as background blurring, among others."
"I appreciated having the basic features like screen sharing and camera options."
"Google Meet has excellent audio quality, good images, and a robust set of features."
"Google Hangouts currently uses AI capabilities to generate splits on the call and summarize it."
"The most valuable feature has been the ability to present presentations during meetings."
"Stable communication tool with a good history feature and very easy installation."
 

Cons

"If there were maybe more tutorials outside of what I'm aware the university is suggesting, I would take more tutorials on effective ways to deliver content. I come from the industry and content was always needed when people that were observing were smart and involved and decision-makers instead of so passively just trying to pass the course. In my imagination, the tutorials would be a tool where the learners themselves can have much more hands-on learning during a Collaborate session."
"We faced outages when the user limit went over a certain number."
"The system can overload when too many try logging in."
"We don’t have any complaints."
"The solution can be improved by integrating other tools."
"One improvement could be integration with Google Calendar to help find available timeslots when scheduling meetings with many participants."
"The solution could integrate more automation into the product."
"The algorithm should be improved to automatically deal with poor connections in a better way."
"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 would like to see support for showing virtual backgrounds."
"Maybe they should offer more security features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"There is no license cost."
"There is an annual subscription to use this solution."
"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 believe my company has a yearly license for Google Hangouts, but I'm not sure because this is a corporate account, so I don't have the details."
"Google Hangouts has reasonable pricing, but I don't use the paid version because I only have a small budget, though you get more features from the paid version."
"I think there is a need for payment for licensing, but as students, we didn't have to pay for it when we were using it. Our professors were the ones paying for it since they needed to record the sessions."
"There is a need to make certain payments towards the licensing costs attached to the product and some other tools that are included in the suite offered by Google. Google Hangouts alone as a product is available for free."
"I use the free version of the solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Marketing Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
14%
University
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

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Earn 20 points
What do you like most about Google Hangouts?
It's integration with Google is the valuable feature.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Hangouts?
Google Hangouts comes as a package, so it's difficult to say or comment on the price of this particular product.
What needs improvement with Google Hangouts?
Sometimes when we have a call and need to share audio or play a video, we find it challenging to switch from sharing the complete desktop to only a particular Chrome tab, as it doesn't support audi...
 

Also Known As

Blackboard Mobile
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Derby Online, Universty of Warwick, University of Liverpool, City College Norwich, Northumberland College, Mid-Kent College, Watson Pharmaceutials, Capella University, Shore Tel Sky, Lincoln PD, City of Somerville MA, Somerset County Council
Information Not Available
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