Still don't understand Hangouts

[carraser891]

Is Hangouts supposed to be an answer to iOSs' iMessage? Will it eventually be the main app for text messaging on Android? Im just confused as to the point of it especially since they ask for your phone number.

 

[Ry]

Is Hangouts supposed to be an answer to iOSs' iMessage? Will it eventually be the main app for text messaging on Android? Im just confused as to the point of it especially since they ask for your phone number.

Not yet.

In terms of end goals, Google+ Hangouts feels very "alpha".

 

[psufan32]

Not yet.

In terms of end goals, Google+ Hangouts feels very "alpha".

Yes, it does. And, I'm surprised, being Google, that it just is not very intuitive. They had an opportunity to really take the widely known Talk brand and make it something that would immediately get a ton of usership. However, it lacks features, doesn't unify anything on Google right now, is unintuitive out of the box, has had a botched rollout (in my apps list in Play, it is Hangouts w/ the Hangouts logo, in my app drawer, it is Hangouts w/ the Talk logo, and on my home screen, it is Talk w/ the Talk logo) and requires that Google try to build a completely new brand (instead of keeping Talk).

Imo, they rushed this thing out when it probably needed another 6 months of internal work.

Btw, anyone know how to reconcile contacts which show up twice?

 

[Ry]

Yes, it does. And, I'm surprised, being Google, that it just is not very intuitive. They had an opportunity to really take the widely known Talk brand and make it something that would immediately get a ton of usership. However, it lacks features, doesn't unify anything on Google right now, is unintuitive out of the box, has had a botched rollout (in my apps list in Play, it is Hangouts w/ the Hangouts logo, in my app drawer, it is Hangouts w/ the Talk logo, and on my home screen, it is Talk w/ the Talk logo) and requires that Google try to build a completely new brand (instead of keeping Talk).

Imo, they rushed this thing out when it probably needed another 6 months of internal work.

The fact that they released it when it doesn't really unify any of their messaging offerings is troubling.

Btw, anyone know how to reconcile contacts which show up twice?

Merging contacts in Gmail should fix it.

 

[ttwiitch]

Yes, it does. And, I'm surprised, being Google, that it just is not very intuitive. They had an opportunity to really take the widely known Talk brand and make it something that would immediately get a ton of usership. However, it lacks features, doesn't unify anything on Google right now, is unintuitive out of the box, has had a botched rollout (in my apps list in Play, it is Hangouts w/ the Hangouts logo, in my app drawer, it is Hangouts w/ the Talk logo, and on my home screen, it is Talk w/ the Talk logo) and requires that Google try to build a completely new brand (instead of keeping Talk).

Imo, they rushed this thing out when it probably needed another 6 months of internal work.

Btw, anyone know how to reconcile contacts which show up twice?

If your talk all still says Talk on it, then YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE UPDATE yet....

SMS will be integrated shortly after mostly everyone gets the update, but I do agree why release an incomplete app!!

Sent from my Galaxy S3?

 

[psufan32]

If your talk all still says Talk on it, then YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE UPDATE yet....

SMS will be integrated shortly after mostly everyone gets the update, but I do agree why release an incomplete app!!

Sent from my Galaxy S3?

I have. When I click on the Talk logo w/ talk underneath it on my homescreen, it takes me to Hangouts. I was able to update through the Play store last night.

 

[Ry]

I have. When I click on the Talk logo w/ talk underneath it on my homescreen, it takes me to Hangouts. I was able to update through the Play store last night.

Delete your homescreen shortcut, then drag the new Hangouts icon from the app drawer to the homescreen.

 

[psufan32]

Delete your homescreen shortcut, then drag the new Hangouts icon from the app drawer to the homescreen.

Lol. The problem with that is the Icon in the app drawer is Talk, with Hangouts written underneath it. The only place where the icon itself is actually correct is in the Play store list of my apps.

Btw, when you mentioned merging contacts... I went into contacts in Gmail and clicked "Find and merge duplicates" and it found none.

 

[jreacher]

Am I understanding this right that using Hangouts for texting will send/receive texts through data rather than SMS?

 

[calbrs04]

I'm not sure how this unifies everything and makes gtalk better. If that's the case then I should have full functionality of hangouts when I'm chatting with someone that doesn't have google+. Or am I missing something here?

 

[Max792]

I have the same problem where it still has the talk logo...

I tried uninstalling it then reinstalling from the play store but its still the same

 

[aca_041]

i've installed it on my note 10.1 and it replaced the logo but the background shadow is still talk.