The group video chat feature gets better integration, recording feature

Dec 15, 2011 10:15 GMT  ·  By

Just in time for the holidays, Google is expanding Google+ Hangouts with the addition of several new features. It will be easier to start a hangout from Google+ and some users will be getting the ability to save their hangouts to YouTube.

"With Google+ Hangouts, you can go beyond 'status updates,' and connect with the people you care about using multi-person video. For free. And today we're rolling out a number of improvements that make it even easier to say hello to your loved ones, face-to-face-to-face," Google wrote.

Start or join a hangout about a post

You will now see a "Hangout" link under any post in your stream, even if it’s not your own. It will start a Hangout for the post and an invitation to others will be published in the comments.

At the same time, if someone else started an invitation, you can join in from the comments as well.

Hangouts in Google+ Messenger

Hangouts had already been available on mobile devices, but Google is now bringing them to the Google+ Messenger app as well. Messenger is a group messaging app, so adding group video chat makes a lot of sense. It's also something to separate the app from the myriad of other group messaging apps out there.

Live streaming available to more users, broadcasts are now recorded to YouTube

A few months ago, Google debuted Hangouts On Air, a broadcasting feature, but only to a few people. Google is now making it available to even more and it's also debuting the self-service version, so those that have it enabled can start an On Air hangout whenever they feel like it.

Another great addition is that On Air hangouts are automatically recorded and uploaded to your YouTube account, as a private video. This way, you can make it available to your fans or friends even after you've finished it.

Desktop and mobile notifications of ongoing hangouts

To make sure that you don't miss out on any hangout, Google is adding several ways of notifying you when one is live. On the regular site, you'll see a list of live hangouts in the left sidebar. On Android, you'll see a system notification when you're invited to a hangout.