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  • Update regularly? Last update before this one was in April. So where are you getting your information from?

  • I used hangouts for months, realized that it was pretty crappy, and have permanently been with messenger for the past couple months now. Have to say i love it, but probably for different reasons from what everyone else is saying. I’m a big performance freak, and it always seems that launching and navigating through hangouts is always a hair slower than on messenger. Most people probably wouldn’t notice or care about the difference, but it matters to me. Plus, I happen to love material design and it looks lovely on messenger.

  • Finally! I’ve been asking and sending feedback to Google since hangouts got location sharing. “Offer location sharing in messenger!!”

    My cries have been heard this day. Thanks Google. You really do listen. Eventually.

  • Now if they can get MMS group messaging to work again on Sprint Id be happy. Until then stuck with textra or stock messaging app.

  • I don’t get it… Is Hangouts “messenger” dead? How come they still haven’t fixed serious flaws in it and instead working on this and what looks like just cosmetic changes?

    • supposed to be a pretty decent update coming in the near future (iphone got it already) so we will see.

      • I saw that but wasn’t it mostly GUI? I need them to add remaining Google Voice features (a freaking CheckBox to default outgoing calls to GV number, being able to delete voice mails and being able to see GV missed calls).
        Also, group SMS

  • Google Talk/Chat/Voice/Hangouts/Messenger? So what’s next Google Talk/Chat/Voice/Hangouts/Messenger/Converse? Oh and enough with the mail apps as well, I think Gmail, Google Mail and Google Inbox are plenty. Can we just improve existing apps instead of creating multiple overlapping and sometimes nearly identical parallel apps?

    design web design

  • Does it still get stuck sending and receiving MMS on GS4s? Love it, but function trumps UI.

  • In the previous update, it was no longer possible to send multi-recipient SMSes. So I changed back to Hangouts. Did they fix it in this update?

  • Cool update to messenger and all, but serioulsy hangouts 4.0 should take priority. Not random animations that google tends to put out for it

    • different teams, all seemingly operating fairly autonomously. this can be good for innovation, but google seems to do a bad job with redundancy and lack of full execution on any given product.

  • I just don’t understand this stupidity… FFS, make hangouts similar to IMessage

  • Others have said it already, but I don’t get it. Other than stupid stickers for kids, Hangouts already has location sharing. It even makes it easy for you when someone asks you “where are you at?” and gives you a new button to tap to share your location. I _guess_ it isn’t as pretty as Messenger (maybe if it were orange?), but it works. Frankly, the only feature I want from either app is to be able to have more than one notification for new messages for those times when my phone is in my pocket and I can’t see the notification LED flashing–the main reason I continue to use Textra (that and great support). A close second would be an option to disable stickers and emoji from showing up anywhere.

    • Messenger does have pop up notifications and a pretty sweet set of widgets.

  • I’m really disappointed at Google I swore up and down to myself that they’d update Hangouts last week, well another Wednesday has passed and no Hangouts update in sight..

  • The only thing I don’t like is that every message has a contact image next to it. That drives me crazy. I wish there was a blend between Sense’s messenger app and this

    • I guess they should add an option to disable it. I personally love this feature.

  • Wish they would fix the issue/feature where if you are navigating on your phone and get a text and response via watch, the text messaging app opens on the phone and minimizes the navigation..that’s the only reason I use the Samsung messenger…it doesn’t do that

      • i really enjoy being able to text from voice.google.com and searching thru texts. thats what’s holding me back from regular SMS…

        • If you are talking about backups. The app I mentioned does that. It saves all the texts in a file and you can use the app to view or search through the backup. Is that what you are talking about?

        • Then use Textra and Pushbullet. Not as good as GVoice (as it doesn’t show the entire conversation, though assuming it stays off of Pushbullet’s servers that’s probably a good thing), but at least it works with everyone.

  • There’s also a small animation change to the message bubble when you send a text. It’s a small change but it was noticeable to me the first time I sent a message.

    • You missed this battle last time. I think it was like 80% of the readers here were shocked to read that Kellen never uses SMS. And that’s being conservative. I can’t remember if there was an actual poll but yes…MOST of us here still use SMS, myself included.

    • I guess the kiddos dont sms but most of us text message as a primary for of communication

    • I guess if you only text 1-2 people. Not everyone has or wants to use the same app to message each other.

  • I did a double take on the Sasquatch Brewing Co location. I go there all the time and figured something was grabbing my location data to populate that automatically. Good choice, Kellen!

  • wonder when they will just integrate Messenger into the Gmail web client, seems like they don’t give a rip about Hangouts, tbh.

  • I just want to know if you guys are into beer trading. I ask because I often see location sharing on posts being that of breweries.

  • I’ve been using Hangouts and I feel like I missed the memo. Is messenger that much better?

    • Yes, if for no other reason than it doesn’t look like a booger with text on it.

    • It’s not. Hangouts works just fine. And if you use GV as your main number then Messenger isn’t the app for you. I use GV through hangouts along with hangouts. About 3 or 4 years ago I lied to all my friends and family and told them that I do not have text on my plan anymore and I made them all sign up for G+. I have probably sent 30 text since then. So it basically balls down to how and who you message.

      • I only use Google voice for the voicemail service so I guess messenger would be better for me.

      • Your friends don’t need to G+ to message you through Hangouts, just give them your GV number and texts don’t count on your carrier as texts. Also, Hangouts sucks.

        • Hangouts doesn’t suck. And I understand that you don’t need G+ for that now. But I was explaining how for the last 5 years I’ve converted my friends and family over to hangouts and in those times you did. I was explaining why I don’t use text messaging. Which is why messenger is no good for me.

          • I use GV for 100% of my calls and texts, and Hangouts, while it does the job, does suck IMO. When you make a VoIP call, the phone gets insanely hot and the battery dies fast (over WiFi or LTE), the UI is very sluggish when transitioning between conversations, trying to find a friend to text in your contacts is slow and tedious, and the number pad when dialing only fills up 1/3 the screen leading to incorrect numbers. It also doesn’t properly ring when paired to your cars stereo via BT, with no way to answer the call.

          • Well that’s a different story. I use GV for all my calls but not through the hangouts app. I’ve probably only used that option twice and I didn’t like it. But what I was talking about and what I thought everyone else was talking about was the messaging portion of the app because you can’t make calls through messenger. So touche to you.

          • It does suck, design-wise and feature-wise. But it’s the best Android has. I get your point, but it does really suck. We wanted iMessage, and instead we get an app so badly designed the iOS team beat them to the punch redesigning it.

          • That’s there part where your wrong. I never wanted imessaage. I actually wanted hangouts. And that’s why I believe everyone feels the way they do about it. I wanted to completely get rid of text messaging and I basically did. I never wanted a contender to imessage

          • Wait, what? Hangouts IS iMessage for Android. You don’t want unified messaging? Well congrats, you got your wish.

          • I don’t watch what Android does compared to apple. I could care less what they do. I needed hangouts to message my friends and family and G+ family on WiFi when there was no mobile data available. Again I could care less what apple is doing. Or how they updated their apps and how Google apps look compared to theirs. We (you and I) are just two different types of people and that’s fine with me.

          • That’s an interesting stance, to not care what other industry leaders do. I would argue that most people that follow these Android blogs do care what Apple does. I personally don’t look at it as an Apple vs. Google thing. I simply look at it as wanting a data-driven solution to messaging that is universal and works well. Apple beat Google to the punch by years, and Google still can’t figure it out, in my opinion.

  • The stickers remind me of the “Dumb ways to die” characters. Love it.

  • How do stickers show up when sent to someone without Messenger? . . . Are they universal like Emojis?

  • I feel sick defending hangouts…but they added features hangouts has had for months?

    • yeah, but you could argue that hangouts hasn’t received it’s UI uplift either. Interesting how they choose to design their apps. Their dev and design teams need to be on the same page.

    • Don’t feel sick. Hangouts is the closest thing we have to unified messaging… Apple has figured it out.

      • unified messaging is overrated. I still don’t understand why people care about IM when every carrier and pre paid service offers unlimited texting for dirt cheap.

          • We switched from sprint to Vz we have 4 lines and its actually cheaper than our bill was on sprint 20gb shared data.

        • Because any other message system ever can be used on any device, and are all synced. Text messages need extra apps to sync with a computer or other devices.

        • You can’t text between phones, tablets, or computers without needing additional apps, and even then it’s spotty. With Hangouts, any computer or device that has it installed can be used to call or text from the same number.

          • Except, you know, not your carrier number. It’s some other number I have that nobody knows.

          • You use your GV number… It’s one number that everyone knows. A few years ago I made the switch and everyone now knows and uses my GV number. That way you can switch carriers without worrying about porting your number.

          • I haven’t ever been a fan of using my GV number. The services and apps associated with GV are really only good if you’re on Project Fi. The carrier number is more simple for a phone to use, and porting it isn’t really that difficult. But, I see your reasons why you did.

          • What issues did you have? When someone calls my GV number, it is either setup to forward to your carrier number, or calls via Hangouts over VoIP. You can receive or make calls and texts from any phone, tablet, or computer.

          • Firstly, nobody knows my GV number. They all know my carrier number. I don’t want to switch. Secondly, Google Voice doesn’t handle SMS and MMS/Group Text very well, and can only be used via the Hangouts app. Hangouts is Google’s redheaded stepchild right now. I’d rather not be forced to use Hangouts.

            You are right, though. It’s nice to be able to make/receive calls from many different devices. I just wish you could do that with your carrier number, like iOS/OS-X allows. It’s simple, and people that aren’t nerds like us would get it.

        • Backing up messages. Cross platform messaging. Messaging from multiple devices. Continuity. Simplicity.

      • I want iMessage on Android. At least it’d work and look nice. And we could finally chat with our Apple brothers and sisters in pease.

          • It works, in a bare minimum sense. Android is now Material Design. It’s about simplicity, functionality, elegance. Hangouts is not. It’s everything but the kitchen sink that couldn’t find a home anywhere else, like Voice. It’s not very functional. You can’t send videos via Hangouts. You can’t send more than one image at a time. Video calls are mediocre at best. VoIP calls kill your battery. The UI is clunky. I mean, this article we’re commenting on is titled “Google Messenger, Google’s Good Messaging App, Got New Features Today” even agrees with what I’m trying to say. It’s poking fun at how bad Hangouts really is compared to what Google has done with Material Design.

    • i keep trying to go back to hangouts but its just so ugly compared to MSG. I also like that each convo is a different color too much faster than looking for names.

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