Google is starting the wonderful process of pushing out a new update to one of our most used apps, Hangouts. The Google Hangouts app hasn’t been updated since February when it received v2.0.303. The update that is rolling out this week will bring it to v2.1. A whole number update usually means there will be a lot of goodies inside. A G+ post from Mike Dodd gave a quick highlight of what is new.
– Merged conversations:Â SMS and Hangout conversations with the same recipient are now combined into a single conversation. You can control whether you want to send a message via Hangouts or SMS with the flip of a switch, and different message types will be easy to tell apart in the conversation. Of course, you can always merge and unmerge conversations if you’d like.
– Simplified contact list: now there’s two main sections in contacts — People you Hangout With, and Phone Contacts — making it simpler to navigate, and easier to use for SMS.
– Homescreen widget:Â add the Hangouts widget to your homescreen for quick access to your recent conversations.
– Performance improvements:Â today’s update includes better quality video calls, as well as improved SMS and MMS reliability.
The home screen widget is a 3×3 that can be resized to fit your screen and offers up a list view of your conversations. Tapping on one will open up the hangouts app into that conversation. It is also scrollable.
The merged SMS and Hangouts conversations that allow you to choose how you want to communicate with the recipient is definitely a feature many were really wanting.
I also see a much clearer view of my messages compared to one my friend sends with a color change so that not all text bubbles are the same color.
We will play about a bit more with it and let you know if we catch anything else. If you are super eager to get your hands on the new update, grab the APK from GappsEarly right now.
