Tips and tricks: 5 things you can do with hangouts

By ZEFFRI YUSOF

Hangouts allow people to video chat around the world for free. Google has added several changes to the service several times over the past few months. Catch up with the latest changes:

1. Take a hangout anywhere

You can join a hangout from the iPhone and Android app. This means that you can join a hangout from anywhere, but it also means you can take a hangout anywhere. Virtual Photo Walks have used this feature so that people with limited mobility can see parts of the world they’d never be able to reach... and take a photo of what’s there. They’ve done it in Rome and Australia. They are looking for volunteer photographers to help out.

2. Share anything that’s on your screen

Above the main screen there’s a button that says “Sharescreen” that lets you share any window you have open, or even your desktop. You can do anything from sharing photos you love (as Sergey Brin recently did in this hangout with photographer Trey Ratcliff) to PowerPoint presentations. Some astronomers also share the feeds from their telescopes and discuss them in a weekly show they broadcast live on Google+.

3. Add antlers... no, moustaches ... no, masks!

Occasionally a button will appear on Google Hangouts that has no purpose other than to make people look funny and crack them up. In November, you could press a button and a cartoon moustache would appear on your face. Over the New Year, reindeer antlers became an option. Right now, it’s animal masks.

4. Collaborate on projects

The one disadvantage with sharing things on a screen is that your viewers can’t change what they’re seeing. And the collaboration on Google Docs was good, but debates and disagreements had to be settled by chat or comments. Now you can see and hear all your collaborators while working on an itinerary, sales proposal, holiday list or script.

5. Adjust the image quality to make things flow better

If your hangout is breaking up or freezing then by clicking on the gear icon in the top-right-hand of the hangout screen you can take it down a gear. If you’re in a place with a foggy Internet connection you might want to do this: the image will be more blurry but everything will move more smoothly.

Bonus: A guide to Hangout terminology:

HIRL = “Hangout in real life.” People who’ve met on a hangout decide to meet offline.

Photo walk = A form of HIRL. Photographers meet in an agreed location and walk together taking photos. People can track the progress of the photo walk on Google+ by searching for a pre-agreed term.

 (Zeffri Yusof is Google Malaysia head of Communications and Public Affairs)