Atos Unify OpenScape Voice vs. Google Hangouts (Classic)

We have used 3rd party companies who have set up Unify for our customer sites and often it goes well. From a network perspective we often don't need to get involved too much and the set ups are often straight forward. This prevents us having to allocate engineers to new implementations.

As previously mentioned, Google Hangouts (Classic) is best suited for ad-hoc, informal communications with external collaborators that would benefit from face-to-face interactions, but don’t require a record of the conversation and don’t necessarily require a high degree of corporate security. For communications of consequence, our corporate toolset is more appropriate, but Google Hangouts (Classic) serves a similar function to FaceTime or Zoom.

Incentivized

• Good integration with other system
• Smart features and web applications
• Good cloud and non-cloud options

• Google Hangouts (Classic) is embedded within Gmail's scheduler, so setting up the link is as quick as a click of the button. It's a one-step process.
• Google Hangouts (Classic) is user-friendly and [has] features to share screens easily.
• Google Hangouts (Classic) is much easier to use than its competitors.
• Google Hangouts (Classic) have [a] good connection time and there are few glitches.

Incentivized

• Phone application could be improved
• Troubleshooting can be difficult
• Can rely on a solid network and internet connection

• I would like to see improved video support, so that saved videos can be sent back and forth via Hangouts more easily, without having to start a separate meet chat
• More pronounced notifications of messages would be helpful; pop up notifications are good, but once there is one, additional messages do not pop up
• Custom muting times would be great, so that if I am in a 90 minute Zoom meeting, I can set it for that time; right now, it is 1 hour or 2 hours. Easy to forget.

Incentivized

Clients seem to understand new feature sets early on and we don't have to allocate too much time to training. This creates a low learning curve across the board which can be essential when implementing new communication methods. The call quality and application support is generally very good and we don't have many calls logged for issues.

The tool is almost self-implemented. It is likely to be available in every pc or mobile device a user or potential user might have, and all you need to do is adding the company's account and you are done. Once you are setted up, you have almost all actual communication methods available in one tool

Incentivized

Google Hangouts works great and does not require a lot of work to troubleshoot. Everything is simple and easy to use. Google provides all of the tools that one requires to utilize Google Hangouts and any information can be found in the built-in help tools. There is also a forum for users to report issues and typically, Google responds well and will try to work out any issues.

Incentivized

As we predominantly have a cisco environment we have used Cisco VOIP solutions in the past, which obviously integrate very well, however Unify does an excellent job at integrating into our networks with out problems and doesn't require too much manual configuring or changes.

For its time, Google Hangouts (Classic) was a fantastic product and matched up well with all of its successors. Now however, with it having been phased on within Workspace for Education, I would not advise any new users use the product. Google Chat, combined with Google Meet, have superseded Hangouts (Classic) and should be used by default due to their close knit integration with Gmail.

Incentivized

• Ease of use gives clients peace of mind
• Easily customisable
• Administratively very convenient

• I believe it was part of the google suite that was purchased. It was worth the cost as it was cheaper. I believe it is now free, but also becoming deprecated. It is much better to use Teams, Discord, Telegram, etc. Google does not provide enough support or features to make using hangouts worth it these days.

Incentivized