Google Hangouts is now divided into two separate apps for business users. Hangouts Chat will compete with apps like Slack, while Hangouts Meet focuses on conferencing with a video chat.
Hangouts Meet
Google will split its Hangouts communications app into two separate apps to better meet the needs of business users. Hangouts Chat is becoming a competitor to Slack, where you can chat in different channels. On the iPhone editorial staff, Slack is one of our most used apps. In our Oogappels series we recently discussed Slack.
→ Read also: Eyeballs # 14: Slack is our favorite productive chat app
You can’t use Hangouts Meet to just call anyone. Unlike Google Duo, the app is specifically aimed at video conferencing. You can schedule this via Google Calendar, after which everyone who is invited via Meet can participate in the meeting. Do you want to call someone directly? Then you better use Duo.
The app does not have many other options. Besides muting your microphone and turning off your camera, you can’t do more than that. Hangouts Meet is clearly designed to complement other Google apps by fulfilling one specific function.
After Google released the two new chat apps Allo and Duo last year, it was not entirely clear what the company was going to do with Hangouts. The company only said that Hangouts would be heading for business, but did not specify what that meant. Now it appears that Google is working on a competitor for Slack, with the addition of excellent video chat capabilities.
Hangouts will continue to exist for non-business users. Google wants to drive consumers more towards Allo and Duo, but the Hangouts app as it works now will still exist in its current form for the time being.
Download Hangouts Meet
You can download Hangouts Meet from the App Store for free via the link below. To use the app you need iOS 9.0 or higher and 112MB of free storage space.