Google Hangouts (Classic) Information Reviews & Insights

Score3.5 out of 10

523 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Google Hangouts (Classic) are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Seamless Integration: Users have appreciated the product's seamless integration into workflows, mentioning its ease of use and smooth accessibility. Some users find the provision of tools like screen-share, breakout groups, and whiteboard features to be beneficial.

Fast & Reliable Performance: Customers have praised the product for its fast and reliable nature, highlighting its quick invitation system, chat capabilities, and easy management of history settings. The platform's ability to support multiple users joining from different IP addresses is also commended.

User-Friendly Interface: Reviewers value the user-friendly interface that offers a visually appealing experience with minimalistic design. They appreciate the platform's smooth accessibility across various devices and its capability to sync calendars, reminders, and meeting setups with both internal and external users.

Google Hangouts (Classic) Reviews

24 Reviews

InformationComputer Software13Computer Networking1Internet5Telecommunications2Media Production3

Review of Google Hangouts

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

June 27, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We primarily use Google Hangouts for internal meetings. We use gmail as our email service, so google hangouts integrates easily into our calendar and other workflows. It is quick and easy to jump on a hangout. Also great for small to mid-size team meetings where you might need multiple people to be able to share their screens at various times throughout the meeting.

Pros

Product integration into workflows
easy of use
Tools (screen-share, breakout groups, whiteboard)

Cons

Can be a little glitchy
Ability to share asset (presentations) without sharing your whole screen
better/more filter options

Likelihood to Recommend

Google hangouts is well suited for small to midsize internal meetings. It also works well for less formal client meetings or when you know a client already uses g-based products with the organization. I wouldn't recommend it for larger groups or webinar style meetings as there are better products for those use cases.

Verified User

Account Manager (Computer Networking company, 501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

Google Hangouts (Classic) Review

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

June 9, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Google Hangouts was used across our organization, both for internal meeting purposes, as well as client-facing calls. It was a quick and easy solution (especially since our email is powered by Gmail) that allowed us to quickly connect with audio and video conferencing, with very few cases of technical issues.

Pros

Audio Connection
Video Connection
Ability to quickly invite others
Ability to Chat

Cons

Tile layout for headshots used to be a tricky item
I don't believe it had a recording capability in years past
Conversations from chat were not archived / emailed to host

Likelihood to Recommend

I think Google Hangouts can be used in a variety of scenarios, whether those are internal business meetings, colleague catch-ups, or client-facing calls. The software is incredibly easy to use and I personally experienced little to no technical issues in my years of utilizing it as a primary piece of my daily technology suite.

Verified User

Director in Customer Service (Computer Software company, 11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Google Hangouts - Good connectivity, audio/visual quality, and best of all ease of use within Gmail Calendar

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

April 26, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Google Hangouts (Classic) is used by my entire organization. When people want to quickly connect with or without a webcam, we set up meetings within Gmail's scheduler with the link to the hangout.

Pros

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.

Cons

The quality of the visuals is not always great. Seems like what is displayed is always dark.
We typically use Google Hangouts (Classic) with only a small group. For some reason, it's not the preferred choice for a long list of attendees.
I am not aware of background feature[s] within Google Hangouts (Classic)(for example, overlay of pictures or backdrop of a city, etc.)

Likelihood to Recommend

Google Hangouts (Classic) [are] well suited for meetings that are set up within Gmail. It is good for screen sharing. Since it's so easy to set up, one can set up a meeting without much hassle and good for impromptu meetings as well.

Verified User

Analyst in Finance and Accounting (Computer Software company, 501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

7 years of experience

A great tool for instant messaging, not much more.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

April 22, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

[Google Hangouts (Classic)] is used as the main form of communication between coworkers. It reduced the use of emails for short and quick communication between 2 people or small groups.

Pros

Ease of use
Ability to create groups
File sharing systems
Ability to use apps and web based

Cons

It could use more integration with calendar
Better notification setting for web based solution
Should allow to have the ability to withdraw messages

Likelihood to Recommend

[Google Hangouts (Classic)] is a great solution for an organization with a lot of interaction between co-workers, and the need for immediate responses. It is a good solution as well to include external users customers, consultants, etc, if they are using the google ecosystems.

Verified User

Manager in Human Resources (Telecommunications company, 11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Hangouts is just that... a hangout

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

November 18, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Google Hangouts for communications outside of our internal network. It solves the problem of communicating with people outside our network without having to leave our desktop.

Pros

the interface is user friendly
the use case is to the point
it is easy to add and remove contacts

Cons

file sharing isn't the greatest
history deletion
connecting different accounts to the interface

Likelihood to Recommend

I believe Hangouts acts as a second text message platform, other than that it doesn't really work for groups or video calls or work-related communications all that well. I enjoy the platform for the functionality of using it to communicate with people outside of my company network.

Sierra Schubach

Marketing Content Manager in Marketing at Impartner Software (Computer Software, 51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

View profile

Good for small orgs

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

September 23, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We utilize Google Hangouts for team meetings and 1:1 calls. Most of the organization uses it. It does connect our team quickly and, usually, easily.

Pros

Click to join
Video
Chat

Cons

Connection sometimes the connection is dropped.
Sound quality and sound features.
Single link meetings and meeting start and end times.

Likelihood to Recommend

It's good for smaller organizations or quick internal phone calls. For larger organizations with stakeholder calls and more important calls, a more thorough solution is needed.

Becky Jewell Laughton

Director of Customer Happiness in Customer Service at Sandboxx (Internet, 51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

7 years of experience

View profile

My review on Google Hangouts

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

September 23, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

This service by Google is used by the whole organization when other software fails to establish communication. We use it for text messages and video conferences. It keeps everyone connected on the go whether they are on office premises or traveling somewhere. Can be used either on desktop or on cellular phones.

Pros

Video conferencing
Audio conferencing
Text messaging

Cons

There is nothing that needs to be improved.
I am pretty much happy with all the services.

Likelihood to Recommend

Very well suites for inter and intra organization conferences. You can use it for audio or video conferencing or both of them simultaneously. Works on all kinds of platforms and all kinds of operating systems. You can use it on desktops or cellular phones whichever is suitable. You can also share documents, images, videos, etc.

Verified User

Analyst in Quality Assurance (Computer Software company, 501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Works like a charm

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

September 23, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Hangouts is a great tool that is used across the whole organization, internally and externally. It solves most of our communication needs as we can use it for IM as well as calls and video calls with clients and remote offices. The product is free and it integrates perfectly with the rest of Google's suite which makes it extremely convenient.

Pros

Audio and video quality very good, best in the market
It's free
Works on any device, seamlessly

Cons

You can't edit sent messages.
Could be better integrated with a project management tool.
It would be great if the product allowed you to somehow get a stored record of past calls.

Likelihood to Recommend

Hangouts is an excellent product. Not only is it free, but it also integrates perfectly with the rest of Google's suite of products. I recommend it for all use cases, big and small firms, and even for your personal life. I really like the fact that it works across all devices because it gives the users a lot of flexibility.

Verified User

Manager in Sales (Internet company, 51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

Not enterprise-ready and can't compete with Slack and Zoom

Rating: 5 out of 10

Incentivized

September 21, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Used for 1-on-1 comms that are more personal than business. We previously used it for all business communication until Slack was introduced but now usage has fallen. It is still used because it is free but we know it will eventually be deprecated or charged for, and at that point we will retire it, as Slack is incredible.

Pros

Gifs.
One on one communication.
Push notifications.
Desktop UX.
Mobile app reliability.

Cons

Group communications.
Integrations.
History.
Search.

Likelihood to Recommend

It's amazing for personal, one-to-one chats, but falls very flat compared to any enterprise messaging system. I would not waste time deploying it unless you need a free solution (but even then I would use a free Slack plan instead). It's past its prime and will be sunset by Google soon. Avoid besides for personal use.

Matthew Gardner

Director of Customer Success at RouteThis (Computer Software, 11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

View profile

Google Hangouts for video conferencing is a good choice

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

September 21, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is used throughout for quick video conferencing. Most employees have Google accounts and it's easy to start up and get people connected. Mostly used for working with people working remotely when an email isn't sufficient.

Pros

Good quality in meetings
Show camera view of all participants and you can easily identify who is speaking.
Tracks history of calls which is nice for record-keeping.
Screen sharing capabilities help getting your points across.

Cons

UI to get a call going is a little confusing via the web browser.
Not really the popular choice which is why we mostly use Zoom or go-to-meeting.

Likelihood to Recommend

Well suited for video conferencing when one needs to communicate between employees or clients that are not physically in the same location.

Verified User

Employee (Computer Software company, 11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

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