Download - Google Hangouts - Home - Plus Your Business · Plus Your Business - Google Hangouts Introduction Starting a ‘hangout party’ Chatting with an individual Hangouts with groups Initiating

Plus Your Business - Google Hangouts

Google Hangouts

© www.plusyourbusiness.com

http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.plusyourbusiness.com%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNERItJIL5oBKeMeOh4AX9EoU7J75g


Introduction

Starting a ‘hangout party’

Chatting with an individual

Hangouts with groups

Initiating a Video Call

Options when in a group hangout

Joining an existing video call from a hangout chat

Once you enter the hangout

Controlling what goes into the central screen.

Global Hangout settings




Introduction

It's time to take an in-depth look at Google Hangouts.

If you click on the green speech icon, it gives you the option to sign into hangouts.

Google hangouts are both chat - which may only be an individual, or it could be a largergroup - or they are video calls. They can also be a combination of the both.




Starting a ‘hangout party’

Anytime you see the ‘speech marks’ you will be able to start a hangout party.

Let's now sign into hangouts by clicking on the green icon, and then clicking sign in at thebottom.




At its most simple level, you'll see in this section, your contacts, the people who you want tochat with.




Chatting with an individual

Let’s begin using Google Hangouts as if it was just with one person.

1. If you hover over an individual, that brings up their hover card.

You also know if a person's available to chat because there's a green line under their image.

2. Then you can add them into circles or you could click on the name and go to the profile.

If you want to chat, you just click in the section on the right, and that will bring up a chatbox.

You can write in the chat box, as you would expect and press ‘return’ to send the message.




Also the hangout has many features, including:

1. In the lower left, there's a smiley face, which if you click on it, it will give you the optionof adding images into the chat.

2. On the lower right, if I click the camera symbol, it brings up the option for me to bringimages in either from my computer or from within Google+.

3. If you go to the camera symbol, and you click that, that will invite the individual to avideo call.

4. Next to it, you can add more people to this hangout. And this is the text part of thehangout. And I can choose names, emails, somebody's telephone number, or a specificcircle.

Looking on the upper right, there's a cog. And if I click that, you get these settings for thisparticular hangout party with this individual.




5. So if I want to receive notifications when they come into the hangout and start chatting,I can chat that or not. You can save the hangout history, or you can have that unchecked.

6. Now when you are finished with the hangout, you might like to delete it so it doesn'tappear in the right hand hangout bar. But when you delete a hangout, it means that thatparty's over, and you can't just re-enter it.

So instead, sometimes you may like to use archive hangout, which will just move it off thebar on the right hand side, and it means you can reenter the party later on.

The final thing to know here is that there's an option to block an individual. When you'vechosen your settings, you can click save.




Hangouts with groups

The same principles will apply to groups as with individuals, but the options will be slightlydifferent.

1. Here's the hangout party that's had 61 people in it.

2. If you click on this icon you can see the individuals that have been in this party - you canadd more people to the hangout by clicking ‘add people’ from this screen.

Note: this hangout party is actually still going on.

3. From there you can types e.g. a circle of people to invite and then,

4. Click ‘add people’.




Initiating a Video Call

You can initiate a video call with that person or that group just by clicking on the cameraicon whenever you see it.

If you click on the video call icon, and it would ask everybody within that hangout party ifthey'd like to join the video call. There's a maximum number on the video call, buteverybody would get the invite.

This aspect of the hangout is like a conversation, where you can even see by hovering overhow far people have read up to. If a person's typing, you'll see 3 green dots appear next totheir image.

You'll also see people joining and leaving the hangout as their image appears and disappears.




Options when in a group hangout

This is a group party and when you click on the cog, you have a slightly different option, notto delete the hangout, but to leave it. If you click on leave hangout, you can choosewhether to stay or leave.

This is really where the importance of the archiving comes in, as when you leave, then youhave to be invited back into that same hangout in order to rejoin the party.

You may have many hangout parties going on at the same time, you can also add a nameand then you'll know what the purpose was of that party.




Joining an existing video call from a hangout chat

Sometimes you will see a hangout chat where there's a video call going on, and you can seewhich individuals are already in ‘the room’ as their icons are showing the the green section.If you wanted to join, you can just click on the green.




If you want to start your own hangout party, you can do so by:

1. Clicking on "new hangout" and then invite the names, email addresses, numbers or circlesto that hangout. When you start one this way, you have the option whether to send amessage or whether to start the video call.

2. Alternatively, you can start a video party by clicking ‘Start a video Hangout’ and that willopen up so you can start a video call

3. Or join ones to which you are invited, if you click any of the invitations you'll join thevideo party.




Once you enter the hangout

When you're in the video call, it will look very similar to the screen below, and here is a tourof some of the features:

1. You can expand or contract a chat bar (the blue icon), which is called group chat on theright hand side.

2. The next step down is ‘screen share’, which you click to share your screen.

3. The next one is ‘capture’, where you can take a picture of the hangout whilst it's goingon.

4. Then you have YouTube, which brings up the app within this particular hangout so youdon't have to leave the hangout in order to watch a YouTube video together with the groupof people who you're hanging out with.

For instance, the Google Drive app is excellent for collaborative working as it allows you tobring files into the hangout and then work on them collaboratively.

5. Click to add more names, circles, or email addresses.

6. Next to it, there's a little microphone, and if I click that, that mutes, and means thatpeople in the hangout can't hear when I'm speaking.

Note: When you have more than 3 people in the video call part of the hangout, and youenter, you'll be automatically muted. So you'll need to come and unmute yourself.

Next to the microphone, you have the ability to turn your camera off, and then your iconwill appear, and you can turn it back it on again.

7. Then you have the ability to adjust your bandwidth (great if you are having challengeswith the reception).

Next to that you have ‘settings’ which you can click in and change the settings for yourcamera and for your audio.

Finally, when you're ready to end the call, you just click the exit button.




There is a lot more to hangouts, including ‘apps’

1. click on the "expand apps" button to show the names of the apps

2. You will see apps such as ‘the Hangout Toolbox’ that has some great additions to thestandard Google Hangout e.g. adding a ‘lower third with your name.




Also, if you click on the cog/gear at the top of the screen you will bring up your settings -you can change microphone and video inputs here.




Controlling what goes into the central screen.

A couple of other things to point out.

1. You can mute the person by clicking on that microphone. So if someone's being noisy inthe hangout, you can mute them. You'll probably find that there's a block button there aswell.

2. If you hover over the bottom picture and then click on the person's name, that will takeyou to their profile.

Next if you click on anyone's screen on the bottom section, it will bring them into thecentral screen, which is called ‘blue boxing’. What will happen otherwise is that theindividuals, when they speak, will be jumping back and forth into the screen, which is a verydynamic way of interacting within the video call.

However, if you want to fix one person on the screen - maybe they're screen sharing at thetime, and you don't want people jumping back and forth, then you simply click, and thatputs a blue box around and fixes them in the central screen.




Global Hangout settings

There's a very important tab in the upper right on the bar.

If you click, it drops down and you can see you can snooze your notifications for an hour,for 8 hours, for 48 hours, across all of the hangouts.

You can also look at which hangouts you've archived.

If you ‘click’, it gives you the options of which hangouts you want to have left from archive.

You can then go to the cog on that hangout, and you can choose if you want to (or not)archive it, which will mean it will return to being included in your hangout list.

Also in this section, you can see the hangout requests you've had. You can see how manypeople you've blocked. And you can unblock them just by clicking. You can ask for help. Youcan send feedback. You can also sign out of hangouts totally.




Recap: if you click on the "customize new request," it will take you to a screen in yoursettings that will allow you to decide who can send you a request or who can hangout withyou.

You may even like to set up a specific circle, which is your hangout circle and all of thosepeople can then send you a request.

