Hangouts for Android to be updated, will feature video messaging

Android users don’t have to wait too long for them to send video messaging using Hangouts as Google will soon provide the 11^th version of the app on Google Play.

9to5google reports that the new update is not yet available on Google Play, but APK Mirror has provided an APK for those who want to try out the new updates. The option to send videos can be found at the bottom bar and with a simple tap, it will open up the camera to record and send the video via Hangouts. The progress of uploading and processing the video can be seen. Once it’s finished, playback can be done through other apps on the device.

The new update also removes the ability of Hangouts to merge SMS and Conversation into a single thread. Google said the feature was removed because “it caused user confusion and had low usage.”

Hangouts new update also allows users the ability to kick others from group Hangouts. This feature is available for both iOS and Android.

With the new update, Hangouts for Android is now on par with Hangouts for iOS, as the latter got its video messaging feature update early this year. However, it won’t make Google’s messaging app turn heads and dominate the market.

According to Android Police, the latest update to Hangouts doesn’t really do much except provide video messaging service to Android users, a feature Google left out for Android users prior to this update.

Hangouts version 11 doesn’t solve any of the actual problems and issues that have been plaguing the service or the app itself. The video messaging of Hangouts for Android is also limited to only one minute of video, while iOS’ Hangouts recently got updated to allow two minutes of video.

The 64-bit version of the update can be downloaded from APK Mirror, while other versions will become available at Google Play.