Google unveils new Hangouts for business

Google has unveiled its new Hangouts, which include Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat – aimed at collaboration between business team members.

Google said it is doubling down on its enterprise focus for Hangouts and its commitment to building communication tools for business teams.

“More than half of the workforce will contribute remotely by 2020, so businesses require purpose-built tools to help employees succeed,” said Google.

• Hangouts Meet is a video meeting service which makes joining meetings effortless through a light, fast interface and smart participant management.
• Hangouts Chat is an intelligent communication app for teams that takes direct messaging in Hangouts and evolves it to reflect the way modern teams talk business. Dedicated, virtual rooms create a home for each project, with threaded conversations.

Chat’s integration with G Suite means shared content from Drive and Docs can be viewed in conversations.

The Hangouts Chat platform supports a range of capabilities and integrates with third-party applications.