Google Hangouts (Photo : Facebook)
Instant messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger are getting popular these days, in fact some of them already have their own website. Not to be left behind, Google recently announced that it will also launch the official website of its own communication platform, Google Hangouts.
Google Hangouts was released in May 2013. It mergers three of Google's messaging platforms; Google+ Messenger, Google+ Messenger and Hangouts. Since its release, the platform was developed to cover several communication methods like instant messaging, SMS, Voice over IP and video chat.
Google Hangouts' official domain is http://hangouts.google.com. The domain is active starting Aug. 18.
Despite gaining its own domain name, Google Hangouts is still part of the bigger Google domain unlike Facebook Messenger that has its own standalone domain name. What this means is that Google Hangouts just sidestepped away from the services offered by Google+. According to Tech Crunch, the domain Hangouts.com is also not registered under Google.
Users of Google Hangouts can now access its own domain directly rather than going through Gmail or Google+. Many tech analysts consider Google's latest move to be part of its bigger plan of introducing powerful standalone brands in order to compete with micro-products being peddled by tech giants like Microsoft, Facebook and Snapchat.
Currently, Facebook has Messenger and Instagram while Snapchat's Stories is also gaining momentum. On the other hand, Google has Photos and now Hangouts.
Google has been very busy upgrading its Hangouts service in the past couple of months. According to The Verge, the Hangouts app received a major overhaul on both the Android and iOS platform which updated its style by incorporating Google's Material Design Style.
