"We think Hangouts should keep pace with how you socialize in the real-world," Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at Google, says of the updates to Google+ Hangouts.
Google+ users can now join Hangouts from their Android devices. (Google says iOS support is coming soon.) Select users can turn video chats into public broadcasts. Plus, users can also share their screens, use a sketchpad to doodle with participants, collaborate on or present a Google Doc, and join or create Named Hangouts.
| 5 Free Tools for Recording HangoutsUsers can access this latter batch of updates by clicking the "Try Hangouts with extras" button in the Hangouts green room. "The extras are still under construction," Gundotra explains, "but we wanted to preview these features and get your feedback sooner versus later."
Google has also released the Developer Preview of the Google+ Hangout API. This adds to the basic set of APIs released last week. "It enables you to add your own experiences to Hangouts and instantly build real-time applications, just like our first application, the built-in YouTube player," says Richard Dunn, Google+ platform for Hangouts technical lead.
Of course, the timing of Google+'s public launch, the Hangouts enhancements and API, the mobile updates and the rollout of Google+ search is not lost on us. Facebook is set to release a slew of significant updates at its f8 developer conference this Thursday. The world's largest social network has already challenged Google's social endeavor by pushing out Smart Lists, a more intuitive interpretation of Google+ Circles. Consider this Google's counter strike.
Here's a look at each of the new additions to Hangouts: