When you’re chatting with your coworkers or friends, you want your conversations easily accessible, not buried in browser windows. With that in mind, Google today announced that its Hangouts messaging and calling app is now available for Windows PCs and Chromebooks.
The new Google Hangouts app keeps your chats and contact list accessible on your desktop, without getting in the way of whatever else you’re doing on your computer. Because it works outside of your browser, your chats are always viewable.
You’ll get all your messages as long as you have the app running, and your chats will sync across Hangouts on all your devices. Also, you’ll get integrated notifications that alert you to new messages, so you can quickly find a conversation if needed. Your active conversations and messages will appear as “bubbles” on the side of your desktop screen, with the photo or avatar of each contact, as shown in the photo here.
The desktop Google Hangouts app now has all the video and voice features you’re used to in the latest Android or iOS versions. Google last month announced the addition of global voice calling in Google Hangouts (via Hangouts dialer) for Android and iOS. If you use Google Voice, the app includes complete Google Voice support, so you can make and receive calls, and get your voicemails and SMS messages directly in Hangouts.
You can download the Google Hangouts Chrome App here. If you’re already using Google Hangouts Chrome extension on your ChromeOS or Windows computer, you’ll also see a promo to try the new app over the next few weeks.
