Tag: Hangouts

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March 17, 2014: Google Talk is Down

On Monday, March 17, 2014 Google Talk is experiencing service disruptions. Users reported that they could not access Hangouts through Gmail, Google+ and mobile Apps.

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Google acknowledges service disruptions with Google Talk and Google Sheets.

Google Apss Status 20140317

Google Talk status on 3/17/14 10:15 AM (Mountain View, CA Time):

Our team is continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by 3/17/14 11:15 AM with more information about this problem. Thank you for your patience.

20140317 Google Talk is down

Google Voice users still can receive calls on their phones but not on Google Talk or Hangouts.

Twenty hours earlier, itnews.com.au reports that Google DNS servers suffers brief traffic hijack.

 

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Google Hangouts 2.0 for iOS

Google releases Hangouts 2.0 for iOS.

What’s New in Version 2.0.0

  • Fully-optimized for the iPad, including picture-in-picture video calling
  • Animated stickers that help you share exactly how you’re feeling
  • Record and send video messages up to 10 seconds long
  • Send a map of your current location
  • Optimized for iOS 7

Google Hangouts 2.0

Google Hangouts paired with Google Voice on iOS devices make one great VoIP phone.

As of this writing, Google Hangouts on Android still doesn’t allow users to make phone calls.

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Four months on, Google+ Hangouts for iOS is still better than its Android counterpart.

Google+ Hangouts for iOS gained Google Voice integration back on October 18, 2013 while its Android counterpart is still without this feature.

Google Hangouts Phone Dialer on iPhone 5s

This sure infuriated some hardcore Android users; their comments unintentionally become comedy gold.

According to Nikhyl Singhal, a Google Employee:

  •  Finally, we want to make Google Voice as secure as possible. There are a few third-party applications that provide calling and SMS services by making unauthorized use of Google Voice. These apps violate our Terms of Service and pose a threat to your security, so we’re notifying these app developers that they must stop making unauthorized use of Google Voice to run their services and transition users by May 15, 2014.

Reading between the lines, there seems to be an inherent security issue in Android Platform and/or Google Voice. If not, Google would have already deployed Google Voice integration within Hangouts for Android.

I want Google Voice integration within Hangouts on my Nexus 4; and so does my colleague with his Nexus 5. I guess we all still have to wait.

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Google Service Outages, Friday, January 24, 2014.

Earlier today I was having trouble making calls using Google Voice via Hangouts. Once I arrived at the office, some colleagues complaint that Gmail was down. It turns out Google did have service outages.

I (proudly and foolishly) rely on Google Voice to do my job. Days like these would certainly grant me extra hours of slacking.

Google-Apps-Status-20140124

Coincidentally (and ironically), Google’s Reliability Team was doing Reddit AMA right before the outages happened.