New Google Hangouts Feature Allows Anyone To Join Conferences

With the advancement of technology, the apps, the internet and practically almost anything one could imagine, it wouldn't come as a surprise that things we use to love gets updated more frequently than how it was before. One of the things we see expanding are the social media apps or messaging apps and extensions of what used to be a simple mundane task.

Apps today that seem important especially in today's society are the messaging or calling apps that most companies now use in communicating with their employees or speaking to loved ones. One fine example of this app is Google's Hangouts app.

Google Hangouts app is Google's version of a chat and video conferencing app which users of Gmail and/or Google+ can use. For some time now, they have enjoyed quite the popularity but also have been drawing a number of complaints. The main reason of these complains is the user's inability to use Hangouts to contact their associates if they don't have any Gmail or Google+ accounts.

Following this complain, Google has now announced that they have a new feature for Hangouts that would hopefully answer these concerns. The new feature is the "guest" mode in Hangouts. The guest mode will now allow organizers to invite their associates to calls even if they don't have Google accounts. This feature is also made, having in mind that by doing so, businesses will have an easier time to host conferences on Hangouts with their associates, clients, or consultants.

For this new feature, the organizers of Hangouts conferences still needs to have a Google account and those that they invite to the meetings will be able to join with just a click on a link of invitation from the organizer without even having to fill out a form and give any extra info except for their names. Any guest can join any web or mobile platform as long as the organizer has approved it. Organizers will also still have the ability to add, mute and eject participants of the conferences they have organized.

The new "guest mode" feature follows an earlier move made by Google this year, when they divorced or separated Hangouts from their social network, Google+. It is also the most requested feature by users and is expected to roll out this week. While it is far from being at the top of the game, Google Hangouts' new feature might just establish them more as a chat and video conferencing tool and might prove to be a big threat to other apps such as FaceTime, which is at a bit of disadvantage as they require all their users to use only Apple devices.