Hangouts disappointment

[BrandonEnr7]

Hangouts is one of the worst down-grades ever. Very disappointed. The app should be scrapped and reverted back to normal google Chat + normal SMS app. Then Hangouts should be re-worked.

What do you see wrong with it? I know it has a few disadvantages but you make that statement without any facts to back it. I honestly think it works fine (to an extent), but I do understand other people's needs are different than mine. This is a pulled APK we got from a phone that isn't supported for everyone just yet. I have friends in the UK that say it functions differently compared to me doing the same thing in the US.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[yfan]

Very disappointed with the SMS side of the app. It's slow to open the app, does not download MMS, isn't showing emojis sent to me, and there is no quick reply from the status bar. (That last one is just a nice feature to have) anyone else not getting MMS?

Do you have auto-download of MMS turned on? Settings > SMS > Auto-retrieve MMS (plus auto-retrieve roaming, if you wish).

 

[c0rbindallas]

What bothers me most in hangouts is the fact that when you get an SMS and open it, the notification in the status bar does NOT go away until you swipe back to the conversation list. This is extremely annoying!

 

[Jadien]

Anyone got the official HO app that's being pushed out? Any of these issues fixed?

Posted via Android Central App

 

[iN8ter]

What do you see wrong with it? I know it has a few disadvantages but you make that statement without any facts to back it. I honestly think it works fine (to an extent), but I do understand other people's needs are different than mine. This is a pulled APK we got from a phone that isn't supported for everyone just yet. I have friends in the UK that say it functions differently compared to me doing the same thing in the US.

Posted via Android Central App

Removes voice calling.

Sluggish performance Compared to talk, which was flawless from a performance standpoint.

Forces you to add a number to your Google account, and you have to delete your account to remove it... Turns on link to your account by default......

All sorts of issues with video calls to talk users (as in their phone never rings, it's as if you never called them).

Badly implemented file transfer - use a third party talk client (like Trillian) for chat and picture sharing with talk for only voice/Video chat, and you're golden.

Ugly emoticons.

Fails as an mms client IRT functionality vs OEM stock clients. Virtually useless compared to those apps. I pity Nexus 5 users... Off to the play store for them.

Breaks contacts app Integration (no more presence indicator in contacts). Matters for business users who BYOD. Some use Google Apps and will not update the app because they lose this.

No invisible or busy status. See above.

The worst contact list I've ever seen in a messaging app. Makes literally no sense they did it this way, and is quite ugly.

Unreliable, you never know where messages will be delivered, sometimes they go to your PC and not your phone so you get no push notification.

Google+-encumbered - iOS users can't use it at all without Google+, picture transfer requires it.

The floating read up to here indicators are cute at first, but in group chats when multiple people read up to different points it isn't. Also causes chat bubbles to move sometimes while you're trying to read. Good in theory but ultimately a poor way to present this.

Looking forward to the Facebook Messenger revamp at this point. I don't consider this product usable (for me, since I know the types of reply the lack of a disclaimer will damn me with)

Sent from my Galaxy S III using Tapatalk 4

 

[Jonneh]

I'm enjoying the new Hangouts shipped with the Nexus 5/ 4.4 KitKat. I believe it has at least three bugs that need to be ironed out in an update, but I'm surprising myself with how much I'm actually enjoying using it. Looking forward to the Google Voice integration! I'm also surprised how much I am using Google Now with it baked into the leftmost homescreen. The icons on the stock launcher are just a tad too large for my tastes, but I'm waiting on what the Nova launcher developer comes up with.

 

[iN8ter]

The deficiency is not in the quality of the default app. The deficiency is in the policy, as you put it, of not letting users choose a 3rd party app to be the default app to handle something.


That's a little funny coming from someone who complains about lack of Google Voice integration, since GV SMS never had good support for MMS. Regardless, this is why you have the freedom, on Android, to choose a 3rd party app as default.


Sure, but by the same token, not everyone wants to, or even cares about the extra MMS functions like audio. What's good for the goose... You are representing the subset who want the functionality but dismissing my subset of those who are happy to get a 3rd party app. That doesn't work.


This is partly my point, so thanks.


And Google Voice calling only matters to people who use Google voice. Hangouts calling only matters to people who make calls on Hangouts. What's your point?Just because you don't want a feature or app doesn't make it less relevant.


I said it was only available on Android, not that it's a feature of Android. The whole point of this discussion is the respective Google services experiences on the 2 platforms.


You didn't. I did.


Google services are Google services. What's core to you may or may not be core to someone else. My whole point is that you're picking and choosing services to argue your point. Maps is no more "core" than social. In fact, more people probably use a social network on a daily basis than do maps.


No, that's YOUR experience. And if the stuff you use most is better on iOS, then by all means, get an iPhone. We're consumers first and platform enthusiasts second. Make the best decision for you as a consumer.


Excellent.

Posted via Android Central App

One correction...

YouTube Camera: I actually meant YouTube Capture (Sorry), and I made a typo. It's available from iOS but not for Andorid, so you don't have a point there. A simple search could have told you that, but it was my mistake nonetheless:

There are complete apps available for iOS that haven't been released for Android: YouTube

The app is only available for iOS. Google said something along the lines of they were working on it, but it has yet to arrive.

And no, "Share" is not the Answer.

Everything else you wrote is just defending, and I have tired of responding to it...

Personally my next device won't run Android as many of the issues I mentioned have exhausted me, rhetorically speaking.

 

[yfan]

Personally my next device won't run Android as many of the issues I mentioned have exhausted me, rhetorically speaking.

Umm. If you think I am trying to keep you on Android, you're mistaken. I have already said that we as consumers have to make the best choice for ourselves, and I believe that. If the Google services you use and the features in those services most important to you is available exclusively (or first) on iOS then my only criticism of you is that you haven't already switched.

What I have a hard time putting up with is claiming subjective experience as objective analysis. If you think that the features you use the most are the most important features for everybody, that's what I have a problem with. It is possible for you to have a better experience on iOS for the services you use without the whole line of overall Google services necessarily making for a better experience in iOS.

I'm an Android fan, but not a fanboy. The difference is that for me, Android works better and makes for a better overall experience, so I'm a fan. But unlike a fanboy, I have no interest in staking out overall claims about the superiority of inferiority of Android over iOS, WP, Blackberry or anything else.

 

[iN8ter]

Okay... Whatever you said...

Sent from my Galaxy S III using Tapatalk 4

 

[ttwiitch]

The problem isn't the control, the problem is how the messages are threaded.

Let's make a quick comparison.

In Windows Phone you can "Switch" between SMS and Facebook Chat in the Messaging Hub.

If you go into an area or building with no reception, you can switch to Facebook from SMS and send messages. The Messages appear in the same thread as the Facebook Chat Messages, so there is no break in the conversation flow.

In Hangouts, if you switch to from SMS to IM, then the IM goes to a separate conversation thread (AFAICT), and then when you switch back a whole portion of that conversation lives outside of the conversation. This makes it a compete and utter PITA to refer to earlier parts of the conversation because you can even forget which protocol was used during the earlier exchange.

This is not an issue in the Messaging hub. Everything remains in the same thread regardless of the protocol switch. Before Axing WLM, Microsoft supported three protocols there (SMS/MMS, Windows Live, and Facebook Chat) which could all be seamlessly switched between without breaking the thread up in this way.

It just looks a little sloppy, and it crowds the messaging list with redundant entries for the same contact - nevermind the conversation breaks within each thread as you switch from one to another. For example, if you don't want a Public Google Profile, you may send all your media via MMS to that contact instead of IM (Hangouts requires G+ for picture Sharing), but it would siphon all of that off to another conversation...

Since Google can match Phone Numbers to Google Accounts (they have been doing this for a while now with Hangouts, it's why they ask for verification), then there was no real roadblock for introducing a unified conversation thread for Hangouts and SMS.

Also, the lack of notification badges for Google Apps still makes the stock Messaging app a better choice. I prefer to see the counter for unread SMS/MMS messages on the icon. Hangouts doesn't do that.

This! C'mon Google, get on the ball!

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[nedia_r]

It's dreadful yeh... I thought it would be like iMessage. Google definitely made it sound like it would be like that! :-\

 

[Rolandrice]

My first impressions of the new Hangouts in Gmail is not that good. I used to be able to easily see who is online and who is away. I could see all my online friends up at the top. I could also see if they were using an Android device in many cases (so I knew not to spam them with a lot of messages and could see why they took longer to reply).

 

[elizabath]

Just do what you normally would to uninstall an app but instead of having the uninstall option it will have a roll-back update instead. Talk will re-appear in your app menu with all its fully featured super responsive goodness.

 

[Alextodd1]

It's dreadful yeh... I thought it would be like iMessage. Google definitely made it sound like it would be like that! :-\

Nedia I have heard that Google is going to launch its new update real soon, as it is just a beta version for user reviews. I guess Google already has its app review with them till now, and I hope that they might be launching the new version real soon.

 

[shaytoon21]

hangouts is not working like it was before. it doesnt notify me when i get a new msg or anything when all the settings are turned on. when i open the app up, thats when it shows me all these dated messages so its like wth. i dont have the new hangotus either, its still the old version. anyone else have this issue?

 

[synjun]

trying to make a voice call on hangouts on kitkat nexus 5 there is no phone option just video or sms, i found if you actually type in persons name it shows phone option...aaahhhh

 

[iN8ter]

There is no VoIP in Hangouts. Only Messaging and Video Calling.

You can initiate Phone Calls (Carrier Calls) from SMS, but that's about it. If you want VoIP, downgrade back to Google Talk.

I tried it again today and noticed something odd...

If you enable Hangouts SMS, then it completely blocks Notifications (both Sounds/Icons and Badges) in the Stock [Samsung] Messaging app.

I was thinking about installing it and turning on the SMS integration, with Notifications turned off so that I can use my Stock Messaging app except if I was in Hangouts and needed to send something without changing apps. It seems that once you enable the integration it breaks notification for the other app. You get no icon badges, no sound, no vibration, no anything.

So I had to uninstall it and delete the Google Profile. The SMS/MMS functionality in this app isn't good enough for it to do that on devices that already have another built-in SMS/MMS application.

 

[Varun Sarathy]

Come on guys, at least hangouts now supports SMS... Appreciate it.. No voice integration. OK.. Doesn't matter that much does it. I don't even use the stock Samsung messaging app.. switched over to hangouts

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[skyrockett]

Ok so they integrated sms app to hangouts then how do i get sms on my nexus 7? Its supposed to be unified android messaging system.. Is that what they're trying to do?

 

[iN8ter]

Come on guys, at least hangouts now supports SMS... Appreciate it.. No voice integration. OK.. Doesn't matter that much does it. I don't even use the stock Samsung messaging app.. switched over to hangouts

Posted via Android Central App

Hard to appreciate it when it is so lacking. It is not hard to add SMS to a messaging app, especially when you already have an SMS app developed and can leverage that code.

The interest was always in the execution not it's mere existence.

Sent from my Galaxy S III using Tapatalk 4