Google Hangouts App for Android Devices Gets New 'Smartness' Features: Video Filters, Prompts to Share Your Location and More
On Wednesday morning, Vice President of Product for Google+ Bradley Horowitz announced at the Paris LeWeb conference that the Google Hangouts app for Android is getting new features which include 16 sticker pages and Easter eggs.
TechCrunch reports Android users are now able to apply filters like vignette and sepia to video chats as well.
While these features are fun, the Hangouts update also offers smarter features.
If someone you are speaking to in a chat box asks where you are, Hangouts will automatically recognize what was typed and prompt you to share your location. To share your location, simply tap the prompt and a pin will drop at your location on a small Google Map (and for those of you who don't wish to pinpoint your exact location, you can cheat). Location-sharing in Hangouts is not a new feature, but the app's ability to identify when to automatically provide you with a quick reply option is.
"We're trying to bring a Google Now kind of smartness to our conversations," Google Hangouts head of product Amit Fulay said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
According to Fulay, the Hangouts team rolled out the location feature first because users have complained about having to switch between mapping apps and messaging apps to coordinate a meet-up.
Another great feature: All your contacts will have a "last seen" timestamp so you know when someone is online. Users also now have the option to import your phone's contacts to Hangouts as well.
Fulay described features the Hangouts team is working on that app users can expect in the future, such as the ability to make a restaurant reservation with one tap after the app recognizes you are discussing it in chat.
"Nobody is reading your conversations in hangouts or anything like that," Fulay said, adding that the new features operate algorithmically.
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