Google Hangouts has been around for a while, and if you haven’t used it for communication with your team yet, you are definitely missing out!
Besides being a proven platform, the app works well with other Google apps, such as Calendar or Gmail, and can be used directly in a browser. This means no lengthy installs, no bugs to show up at the very last and worse possible moment, and no need for any extra technical assistance besides the guys administering your G Suite account.

If you’ve worked with the app before, you know it provides video call features, and you can have a group video chat with the entire team. But it’s not just this anymore – Google worked hard on updating their products, and recently launched two additional apps that will make every businessman’s life a lot easier.

Google Hangouts Chat

If you’d like an app similar to Slack but that can be integrated with all G Suite accounts, Hangouts Chat is the best choice.

The app allows the project manager to create a group where all the members can take part in the conversation, but there’s also a function where each team member can have private conversations with other members (also known as one-to-one chats feature).

The innovation with Hangouts chat is that everything is conversation-oriented. You are not replying to messages, but working on a conversation. Furthermore, when you want to open a new topic, you start a new conversation. This makes everything easier to follow.

We loved that you can share documents from Drive or manage appointments and to-do items directly from G Suite. The cool thing is that, when you share a document with the team using Hangouts Chat, the app will automatically update the sharing settings so everyone can have access. This makes things a lot simpler and it will reduce the amount of time spent with setting and organizing chats.

Another cool feature we know you’ll enjoy is using the type of Google file in searches. This way, if you’re digging for an older conversation where you know someone shared a Google Sheet, you just set the type of files to Sheets. Now you’ll already have sorted some of the conversations out.

Finally, the app allows you to set customizable notifications and decide which conversations you want to be notified about and where those notifications should be sent.

Google Hangouts Meet

Also known as Meet, this app is the standard Google Hangouts video group chat, but with some extra features for business meetings. Meet is focused on video chat only and you get up to 25 participants in a call for G Suite Basic and Business and 50 participants with G Suite Enterprise.

For all G Suite clients, the Meet app is available now as its recently replaced the older Google Hangouts.
Here are the steps to follow:

• • Create an appointment in Google Calendar

• • Invite all the participants to this appointment

• Set the time and date, and click on the Add video call link under the video location (this will add the link to Calendar and the new Meet app)

Once it’s time to start a meeting, simply open a Chrome window (the only browser supported by Meet right now) and go to meet.google.com. Here you will see a list of all the meetings you have scheduled so tap the correct one.
You can also invite others by emailing them the meet URL you get once you join a meeting.

In the meeting, you can share the screen with the rest of the group or fidget with the camera and mic (turn them on and off). You’ll also see other participants’ videos on the right side of the screen. Also, just like in the standard Hangouts, the video of the person currently talking will be placed in the main part of your window.

If your on G Suite Enterprise you can also record your meetings and share with others to watch later.

Google Meet for the Conference Room

The cool part about Meet is that it allows you to use it in a business setting. For instance, you can purchase Meet hardware, that’s especially geared to fulfill the needs of a conference room, and have meetings with teams and project managers from all over the world.

Onsite Helper can provide the necessary hardware for your needs and it has the experts that can make the installation smooth and fast. So, if you’re interested, don’t hesitate to give us a call!