Google is set to deprecate Hangouts classic later this year and move all G Suite users to Hangouts Chat. Ahead of that transition, Google is porting over legacy features, like today’s addition of typing indicators.
As announced by Google’s product lead for Realtime Comms in G Suite this afternoon, typing indicators are now available for direct messages. In Hangouts Chat, these alerts are only present in one-to-one communication, and not multi-user rooms.
However, given the multiple threads that can exist in a room, this would be a useful addition to Hangouts Chat in the future. Other services like Slack and classic Hangouts already have this capability.
The typing indicator use three pulsating dots themed with the dark green Hangouts Chat accent. Next to it is the person’s name or email address and “is typing.” This feature is already widely rolled out and available on both the web app and the Android client.
In the coming months, Hangouts Chat will gain other classic features like availability in Gmail, Google Voice integration for calls, and chatting with users outside your organization. The wind down of classic Hangouts for enterprise users begins in April and will be complete by October. Afterwards, Google will begin retiring the service for free users and other consumers.
Direct messages in Hangout Chat now have typing indicators. My favorite thing to do is to type a bunch of stuff for a long type and then delete it and respond with "ok."
— Scott Johnston (@happyinwater) February 13, 2019
More about Hangouts Chat:
- Hands-on: Hangouts Chat is still far from ready to replace ‘classic Hangouts’ for consumers
- Say goodbye? I say Allo: A brief look at the past, present, and future of Google messaging
- Hangouts Chat rolling out Smart Reply to mobile and web apps
- Hangouts Chat on the web updated w/ various Google Material Theme tweaks
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