Just received some delightful Google news on a Friday. Fresh out of Google i/o, Google software engineer Victoria Kirst, just announced a change coming to Google Hangouts on the web. Starting today, Google is rolling out an update that will get rid of the need for a plugin to be able to use Hangouts in your Chrome web browsers. We’ve all run across this at some point. You open Google+ or Gmail and start a Video Hangout, and you are unable to start because you need to download a plugin…Well not anymore!
From the way Victoria is describing it, you will be able to start your Hangout, allow Hangouts to use your camera and microphone, and you are ready to roll. This is a good thing, especially for new Google services users as they won’t be put off by having to download anything before the fun can begin. In case any of you are new to Google services or unfamiliar with them, Hangouts is Google’s messaging platform that spans across devices. When you sign up with Google, you will instantly have access to all of the Hangouts goodies such as: Instant Messaging, Video Chat one on one and in groups, Picture Messaging, Group Messaging, and much more.
It’s no secret that Google would like to rule the world and this is just another piece of the puzzle. Making things easier for users is never a bad thing. This is partly why Apple does so well. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard casual tech users claim that Google (especially Android) is too complicated. So, while this is a small change, it really is an important one.
Victoria stated that this update is available for all Chrome Dev and Canary users, and will continue to roll out to everyone else in the coming weeks. So keep checking for your update. You can find your update in the three line menu button at the top right corner of your browser. Just click that and then click on “About Google Chrome” to see if your browser is up to date.
