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Google, not to be left behind, has finally stepped up to Facebook Messenger.

Google Hangouts finally has a website for Google Hangouts which launched Monday August 17th 2015. That website is https://hangouts.google.com/ and you log in just as you would in your email account to get access to Hangouts.

Geezam - How Google Hangouts for Desktop marks slow Death of Google Plus - 29-08-2015 LHDEER

Only this time, instead of email, you’re taken directly to hangouts.

It’s got three (3) key features that are now readily accessible for those of us who just want to make a Free International Call or just have a hangouts session with multiple friends online:

  • Instant messaging
  • Voice calls
  • Video chats

So what’s so special about a whole website just for Google Hangouts? Plus, couldn’t you already access Hangouts in Google Plus, you know, http://plus.google.com?

Google Hangouts Website – How to silently kill Google Plus while rescuing Google Hangouts

For those of you who are desktop bound, you’ll remember I’d mentioned that Facebook had given Messenger its own website since April 2015 as reported in Now Facebook has a Messenger website for your Desktop.

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This is Google’s answer to that move with a more intuitive website design  that’s IM for the Desktop-bound crowd. There are Large Icons for initiating messages, video calls and phone calls on the right.

To start a new conversation, after approving the Hangouts plugin for your browser, you can then review your chat history or make a phone call, using the smaller icon on the left after.

Tapping on the three dots icon allows you to link with your Hangouts app and Dialer App on your Apple iPhone or Google Android smartphone. The wallpaper isn’t under your control; that changes automatically to a photo pulled from a Google Plus Pro photographer every time you visit the website.

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And yes, you can also access your Hangouts Settings under the three dots icon.

Still I wonder, couldn’t you already do this in Google Plus, you known that little touted and hardly used Social Network at http://plus.google.com.

This website doesn’t give you remote control over your desktop computer from your smartphones like the Google Chrome Remote Desktop Web App and it’s Google Chrome Remote Desktop  for android as described in Google Chrome Remote Desktop lets you control your Computer from Google Chrome for Android App.

Still, if this is one less step to making free phone International calls, the main reason Jamaicans and Caribbean people even use Google Hangouts, then I’m all for it. Still upset that Google Plus is getting the shaft though…..but ok!

Here’s the link:

Google Hangouts

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