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Yes, folks, this is finally happening. It is now possible to send a Hangouts message through Google Search’s “OK Google” command on your phone or tablet. Simply say “OK Google, send a Hangouts message,” and a dialog box will popup to let you enter your recipient’s name and the message. This information can be inputted via voice dictation or traditional text entry methods, both of which can, of course, be accessed through your keyboard.
Once everything looks good simply send it off and you will have sent that ever-so-important message without actually having to venture into the Hangouts app. It’s a small change, but one that’s sure to make life easier for those who use Hangouts as their primary form of communication.
The feature seems to require server-side activation so even if you’re on the latest Google Search and Google Hangouts update you might not have access to it just yet. In that case it might simply require a degree of patience. For those lucky enough to already have the feature, go nuts!
[via Reddit]
Makes no difference, Hangouts looks like sh!t!!!
Not really.
I dont use it at all but i dont think it looks like sh!t….?
Compared to *Messenger*? Yes! it looks like sh!t!!!.
I use Messenger as my daily SMS/MMS….I guess to each his own….I just see how it looks any worse than most. =) nothing wrong with an opinion.
I just really wish Google could concentrate on making Hangouts better, just like Apple with iMessage.
Is HO messaging the same as Google Voice messaging? I’ve been using GV for years, but have been frustrated that I can’t send texts using voice command on my Moto X (2014). I haven’t incorporated GV into HO yet because I didn’t see the value.
With the old Google Voice app you could always set it as the default texting app, allowing it to function properly with “send text to fred”
No Hangouts messages are like sending an IM or iMessage. Although if you use it with GV and your carrier #, you’ve basically got the ultimate form of text communication.
Well, if you had Hangouts as your default, you were always able to do this by saying, “OK Google, Send Message to name” and then say what you wanted to say.
You’re assuming people use Hangouts for texting. I use it for messaging and google voice, but not texting (SMS/MMS).
He didn’t assume anything, he said “if you had Hangouts as your default”.
You’re kind of right. If you use hangouts for both SMS and hangouts saying “Send message to name” sent SMS via hangouts only. It’s nice to now be able to specify sending non-SMS hangouts messages.
THIS is what I’ve been waiting for!
THIS THIS…one more step! Send text via google voice number from hangouts!
Not working for me yet :(. I wonder if having multiple accounts might affect usage or maybe they haven’t turned it on for everyone.
Hmm, would this soon make it possible to send Hangouts messages with our Android Wear watches?
“ok Google”, Hangouts is bloat
How it it bloat? It’s a fine replacement for the stock SMS/MMS app, plus has Hangouts messages. On the N5 (and I’d assume the other recent Nexuses) it *is* the stock SMS app.
Sure, hangouts could be better, but its still usable. I’m just glad the MMS capability is here and i think its a big upgrade over the old GV app.
I consider Hangouts to be a downgrade from Talk from a chat perspective, but it is (mostly*) a much better Google Voice app, and is a godsend for GV users who live in areas with bad cell coverage — the ability to make and receive calls over data is amazingly useful (I even used it to call from Europe on my plan’s included low-speed data connection). There’s still a lot of room for improvement in the app, but it’s much better than many alternatives.
*If you opt in to using Hangouts for GV messaging, you get the MMS (both ways!) and better threading, but if you happen to be one of those users that has enjoyed using a desktop+browser to text, your options are severely throttled. Texting using the web interface wasn’t perfect, but could be done from any browser on almost any platform. There was no additional software to install. When opted into Hangouts, the only option is to use Chrome with the Hangouts plugin. This is a very difficult thing to get running on some platforms, especially if you do not have the administrative access needed to install software.
well you could always login to your gmail account and use the GV sms/hangouts that way too. i do it all the time.
It works for IMing, but not for SMS/MMS. Doing texts requires either the Hangouts plugin or opting out of Hangouts for GV.
Does Hangouts have emoji support? I haven’t used it for a bout two years now since I went to Textra..Oh yeah..and I remember it used to always show my google plus friends..could never take them off…
Yes.
Yeah, they have a large emoji library to choose from plus “stickers” which are extra large emoji.
Finally! I’ve been waiting for this since the beginning of massaging through Google Now. I’m sure going to get use out of this.
Okay Google, give me a massage. ^^
do that many people even still use Hangouts ?
I use it everyday and so do many of my colleagues. We work at a large media company in Times Square.
It’s the only messaging app anyone I know with Android uses.
Not sure how many people you know but i use the regular Android messaging app.
My entire social circle all have gmail addresses and so use hangouts on phone and in gmail web. It’s basically Google’s equivalent to iMessage except work on both Android and iOS. SMS in general seems more and more like a pretty antiquated form of messaging.
Agreed. I’ve forced it on all the people I converse with socially, It’s so convenient to continue conversations from pc to phone to tablet to watch etc etc. Now I want to be able to do this from Android Wear!
FINALLY.