Many of you likely have never used Hangouts. It is a very simply way to make phone calls, video calls or hold quick text messaging chats on your computer. When you have Gmail open, you see your labels (i.e. folders) on the left side of the screen. At the bottom of that list, you will see an option to start a chat with someone:
If you do not see this, you may need to go into your email settings, look for the "Chat" tab, and make sure your chat is turned on.
The first icon that looks like a person allows you to bring up a list of chat contacts. You can use the + sign to select a new contact. The talk bubble with quotation marks allows you to look at prior conversations. The phone icon lets you call a phone number.
If you select a person to chat, or open an old chat, you get a chat box:
At the bottom, where it says "Send a message" you can simply type in a quick message to the person. It will then pop-up on their computer, assuming they have Gmail open. This is a quick and easy way to chat back and forth with someone in the office, or anyone using Gmail.
You can also set up a group chat with multiple people. This can be much easier for an interactive conversation with several people than sending an email and having everyone have to reply all to each message. Gmail will also keep a record of the chat, unless you delete it, meaning you can refer back to conversations if needed.
You may notice there is also an icon of a video camera on the upper left corner. You can use that to have a video conversation with someone. Since I have a "face for radio" I'm not a big fan of video chats. However, one nice feature is that rather than showing your face, you can show the desktop of your computer. This can be a convenient way to show people something you are working on, or how to do something. Of course, using the feature requires that you have speakers and a microphone, as well as a camcorder if you want to have face to face video. Our laptops all have these items, but some desktops do not.
You may also use the phone option built into Gmail. You are able to call any US number. However, the caller ID will show up as some different number. This may cause some people not to pick up your call.
If you would like to use more advanced features, you may want to install the Google Hangouts extension on your browser. You can do this by clicking on the three dots in the upper right hand corner of your Chrome Browser. Select, SETTINGS then click on EXTENSIONS over on the left side of the screen. Click on the link for "Get More Extensions" and do a search for "Google Hangouts". From there, you can add Google Hangouts to your Browser. This extension is not necessary, but gives you more control and features when chatting or making video and audio calls.
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