Google Hangouts [EOL] Reviews

My primary use case of Google Hangouts is virtual meetings with my team.

I appreciated having the basic features like screen sharing and camera options.

In the next release, I would like to see call recording made available.

I have been using Google Hangouts for two years.

I would rate the stability of this solution a nine, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

I have never contacted customer service as we didn't have any issues with this solution.

We use Zoom in parallel to Google Hangouts.

The initial setup was fine because this solution is easy to use.

I would recommend Google Hangouts to other people. This product comes with a Google email account.

Overall, I would rate Google Hangouts an eight, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

We primarily use the solution for virtual meetings. We have a daily meeting each and every morning and that’s where we share where we are in the project and what we are developing, the issues we are experiencing and everything. Sometimes we also run remote interviews for people who would like to join our company. That's basically it.

We have a very basic usage of it. We don't use it as much as it could be leveraged. The item that we use most is sharing the screen and showing demos, however, there’s nothing really fancy on this side.

The solution completely fulfills our needs. We don’t have any complaints.

I started using the solution in 2015. I’m still using it.

The solution is extremely stable. There are no bugs or glitches and it doesn’t crash or freeze. I have more issues with my own ADSL line than the infrastructure itself.

At the beginning, we were around seven people joining, so it was good for the team that we had. I have attended some conferences using this tool where we were over 100 people connected at the same time and there was absolutely no issue. It's got quite good scalability.

Now, we have only three people left in the company and we have an intern sometimes, so we can go from three to six at most in terms of users.

We’ve never had to escalate any issues to technical support. We haven’t had significant issues like that.

We also use Slack. We use a lot of Google solutions as our corporate mail is Gmail. I’ve also used Skype (as a corporate account) and Zoom. That was in previous companies. Zoom was okay, however, as far as my computer was concerned, it was 100% CPU usage, so I don't like it so much. We had some issues sometimes sharing when I had several screens on my desk. Sometimes when you don't share a good screen, it's very difficult to come back. With Skype, it has been a long time since I have used it. However, I recall it was very basic. It doesn't have the same capabilities as seen in Google Hangouts.

The initial setup was very basic. I just clicked on the link in an email, and it just fired up on my Mac. I didn't have to do anything.

As end-users, we don’t have to deal with maintenance.

I’m unsure as to if it was done in-house. It’s just a corporate Google account, and that's it.

I don’t deal with licensing. I’m not sure what the costs would be.

Choosing this was a corporate choice. It was there before I came into the company.

We use the latest version of the solution. Everything is put to the latest version as soon as possible.

I’d recommend the solution to others. It’s very easy. It does the job, basically. You don’t need more reason than that.

I would rate the solution nine out of ten.

Public Cloud

We conduct many meetings, and Google Hangouts is very helpful. We use transcriptions to document meetings, which is important for productivity.

We conduct many meetings, and Google Hangouts is very helpful. We use transcriptions to document meetings, which is important for productivity. When meeting with people from other countries, the transcriptions feature is very interesting to use.

One improvement could be integration with Google Calendar to help find available timeslots when scheduling meetings with many participants.

I do not have experience with a lot of participants, but there is a limit of participants, which is mentioned as around one hundred.

I have never reached out to Google for support on this product.

Neutral

We have a paid version at the company. I rate the product as eight out of ten.

Other

Mostly, I use the tool for discussions and meetings with other individuals.

I think the simplicity of the whole thing is its valuable feature. It's quite intuitive and simple to set up and start. So that's what I like.

Earlier, I think there were some plug-ins for attendance and all, but that's one part that is missing. I believe if you have a license, you might get that. Also, I think the version that I'm using doesn't allow recording. I guess it's more of a licensing issue than anything else, and it needs to be improved. Attendance could be one issue since it is one feature that can be provided and can be useful.

I have been using Google Hangouts for three years. I am using the solution on my personal account with Google. So, it is an individual account. Also, I am using the solution's latest version.

I never tried its scalability. I have never used it for more than two, three, or four participants, so I am not sure of its scalability.

The solution has a maximum of only two or three users.

I have used Zoom in the past. Zoom has a time limit, while Google Meet doesn't. I think that's the major difference between the two products.

The setup is straightforward.

The deployment takes not more than five to ten minutes.

Regarding the steps for deployment, I think if you have a Google account, then all you need to do is click on Google Hangouts and start using it. I don't think that there are any deployment steps required.

I don't think any technical staff is required for the deployments and maintenance.

The installation can be done by yourself.

The solution is worth the money.

The individual account is free of cost. So, it is not expensive.

For individual use, there's no license requirement as such. For storage or some other purposes, if I go beyond 15 GB, then I need to buy something. Otherwise, it's not required.

I found it quite intuitive and simple, so I would recommend users use it.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

The chat feature is the most valuable feature of the solution. I can just drag and drop the images that I want my team needs to see. There is also formatting of font size and color.

I actually prefer Google Hangouts compared to Microsoft Teams.

The user interface is an area with shortcomings and needs improvement.

I have been using Google Hangouts in my current company for a year.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten. We are using it in our notifications. During the running of our pipeline, when we trigger the QA test, there will be a notification sending a message to Google. For all those pipeline runs, I think it is kind of stable.

About eight people in my team use the solution.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten based on the number of users we have.

Before choosing Google Hangouts, I was evaluating other options like Microsoft Teams. I just noticed that in Microsoft Teams, it's hard to backread the previous messages in a group chat. It's kind of slow and hard to backread all previous messages. I don't know if it's a performance issue in Microsoft Teams. In Microsoft Teams, I kind of appreciate how it has centralized documents, chats, and groups. That's the good thing about Microsoft. In Google as well, with Google Docs, we can work faster and collaborate with others. I use Google Docs when using anything since I like it.

My recommendation to those planning to use it is that they should enjoy using the solution. I rate the overall product a nine out of ten.

I am using Google Hangouts for virtual meetings.

The most valuable feature of Google Hangouts is there are no predefined or meeting durations. For example, Zoom meetings have a set duration, typically ranging from thirty minutes to an hour, whereas Google Meet meetings can continue indefinitely. Additionally, it is effortless to generate a meeting, whether it is a live session or for future use, and distribute your link to others, making these aspects appealing to me.

Google Hangouts should add a feature to show how someone connects, such as via a laptop or phone. If you know if someone is using a laptop you can ask them to share their screen.

Although it is possible to adjust video resolutions in Google Hangouts, the available options are limited to low resolutions, such as 360p or 480p. It would be beneficial to have additional options for higher quality, particularly for those with high-speed internet connections who could benefit from enhanced video quality.

I have faced some technical issues where I could not join a meeting, a meeting ended abruptly, or I was in a meeting room but the host could not see I was there. There was some issue in the cloud.

I have used Google Hangouts within the last 12 months.

I rate the stability of Google Hangouts an eight out of ten.

Most of our employees use this solution, it is close to 100 percent.

Google Hangouts is a scalable solution across an organization. Additionally, it has compatibility with devices.

I have used the support.

In the past, I have utilized Cisco Webex. One significant contrast between Cisco Webex and Google Hangouts is that in Cisco Webex, you can discern how a person logged in, whether it was through a phone or a laptop. 

Overall, Cisco Webex has more features than Google Hangouts.

The initial setup of Google Hangouts is simple. Most people have a Google account and it can be done with a few clicks of the mouse.

We have many competitors to Google Hangouts in India, such as Cisco Webex.

Users should look at their use case and determine if they are using video meetings for business use or for informal meetings. I would recommend Cisco Webex for more professional meetings as it has better quality and I would recommend Google Hangouts for less informal meetings and one that does not have a time restrictions.

I rate Google Hangouts an eight out of ten.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we used Google Meet to facilitate interaction between students and teachers. The product was good, as everyone could turn on their cameras and study simultaneously while listening to the teacher. Additionally, now I also use it to meet with friends who live far away, making it really convenient. Moreover, I think that it now has a whiteboard option, which is helpful for individuals who need to write something on a whiteboard. Finally, this tool is also useful for conducting general meetings when the need arises.

I think that Google Meet allows for easy interaction and has additional features, such as background blurring, among others. While many other applications also offer similar features nowadays, there aren't any distinguishing factors that set Google Meet apart from its competitors. However, the best part is that Google Meet enables me to connect with a larger number of participants, unlike other applications where one may need to pay to hold a meeting with a larger number of participants.

I haven't used Google Meet in a few months. The product doesn't offer the option to upload or send files to others. While the product does provide the option to text, it could be even more useful if it offered the ability to share pictures, such as screenshots, with individuals who are not connected with you through phone or social media.

At that point in time when we were studying, we, as students, needed the ability to upload files, especially to send answers to our teachers' questions. Instead of typing the answers, it would have been good if we could upload pictures or screenshots.

I used Google Classroom and Google Meet for almost two years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when everybody was using the product. For now, I am using it from the web. So, I believe that it is the latest version.

The product was quite unstable during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially when we shared our screens, as it often resulted in a black screen. I believe this was due to a large number of people using it around the world, making it unstable.

Since Google Meet did not support file sharing, thought wasn’t given to the fact of whether the product is scalable or not. However, if such a feature were to be introduced, it could potentially pose storage limitations. In the past, more than 40 teachers were using Google Meet, with each professor having around 50 students in their virtual classroom. Presently, with the resumption of offline studies, I am not sure if they are still using the product since everyone has returned to college. I only use the product occasionally, about once every two weeks, to talk with my friends, which is a very low level of usage.

I have used Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Skype, quite a bit. I used Skype's basic version and not the business one.

The setup for Google Meet was straightforward and easy to use. During my time in college, only teachers had access to the premium version. However, the product was deployed in just one day because the process was easy to understand, and we did not need external help. The convenience of deployment was due to the efforts of the college and teachers.

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. I'm not very sure about the subscription model used by our professors, though.

I would recommend Google Meet to others who want to start using it, as long as it's not being used too much. I think the product is convenient for basic conversations, and while I may not strongly recommend it, it would be fine even if I did. Overall, I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

On-premises

We use the solution similar to the way people use Zoom. We use it for meetings online. 

It's very secure.

We like that we can share screens.

It's good for conferencing with others. 

The solution is very easy to set up. 

It can scale. 

We'd like the solution to have better file sharing in the product. 

You only get 60 minutes of video conferencing. 

If you want to record a meeting, you can't do that in the standard version. 

It is not extremely stable. 

We've been using the solution for two years. 

The stability could be better. I would rate it three out of ten. 

It's scalable. I'd rate it eight out of ten in terms of the ability to expand.

We have 55 users on the solution. We may increase usage in the future. 

We use technical support. We can call them. They are fine. 

I'm also familiar with Zoom and Microsoft products. 

There's no deployment process. It comes with Google Workspaces. 

For maintenance, we have one person handling everything. 

I'm not sure of the exact licensing costs. I'd rate the affordability eight out of ten in terms of affordability.

We're using the latest version of the solution. 

For a small business, the solution is very good. It wouldn't be ideal for enterprises. Microsoft is a bit better for that. 

I'd rate the product six out of ten. 

Public Cloud