Google’s Vic Gundotra just announced on his Google+ page a host of new Hangouts features meant to “go beyond the status update”. In short, you can now hangout on any post (an invitation will be added to the comments), call any phone number in the world and conference in anyone (free calling to US and Canada, international calling rates are “super, super low”), plus initiate a hangout session from the official Google+ iOS app by tapping the new hangout icon.
The executive also shared an interesting milestone for Hangouts on Air, saying “hundreds of people” whitelisted as part of their trial now have the ability to broadcast their hangouts to the world. “Our goal is to enable this for everyone on the planet”, Gundotra noted. You will also be able to automatically record a Hangouts on Air session and upload it to a private YouTube account for later viewing. These features require a new Google+ app, “coming soon” to the App Store. The official Google blog has more information.
Also important regarding the Hangouts feature, per Google’s blog post:
– we’re turning it on for hundreds more public figures, celebrities and other Google+ users with large followings – we’re making Hangouts On Air completely self-service, so you can broadcast whenever you’re in the mood – we’re integrating it with YouTube, so once you’re off the air, we’ll upload a full-length (and private) recording to your account
Cross-posted on 9to5Google.com
- Google+ now open to everyone: Live broadcasts, hangouts on your phone, search (9to5google.com)
- Google+ hangouts extra brings free phone calls to the US and Canada (9to5google.com)
