Samsung S4 issue with Hangouts

[AC Question]

I wanted to start chatting to a friend via Hangouts and on my phone for ease of access, but when I try to link Hangouts with my GMail account all I get is a pop up stating "Couldn't sign in because we couldn't reach Google. Try again."
I've been trying again for over two hours now and it seems that no matter what I do my phone cannot manage to "find google."

Is there any way to fix this? Is it possible for my phone to once again hopefully find google?

 

[B. Diddy]

Does it happen on both wi-fi and mobile data? Does it persist after a reboot? Try removing your Google account in Settings>Accounts​, and adding it back again.