The confusingly named Google Hangouts Chat is Google's take on what a business messaging app should be.
I say confusing because it's different from the old Hangouts, and it's not a "chat" app.
It's a proper team messaging space along the same lines of Slack and Microsoft Teams.
This app, which is only available via a business G Suite account, isn't nearly as loaded with features and options as Editors' Choice Slack, but it keeps people connected.
It works much like any other business messaging app, with a few minor distinctions in its default settings and overall tenor.
Compared with Slack in particular, Hangouts Chat feels more closed than open, more staid than playful.
It's an option if you're already paying for G Suite, but it's not worth buying G Suite just for Hangouts Chat.
Google Hangouts Chat Pricing
If you want to use Google Hangouts Chat, you must have a G Suite subscription and account, which is a business-grade account.
There's no other way to use the app, so it isn't available to clubs, groups, or other kinds of teams.
Pricing for G Suite starts at $6 per person per month.
At that price, your team gets business-grade Gmail accounts, video and voice conferencing, team messaging, shared calendars, Google's office apps (Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.), 30GB of storage space per person in Google Drive, plus some basic business controls.
There are two more options at $12 and $25 per person per month that add a low-code app development environment, unlimited storage, and additional tools for business compliance.
It's difficult to compare the price of Google Hangouts Chat directly with other business messaging apps because it's sold as part of a larger package.
The only comparable package is Microsoft Office, which includes Microsoft Teams in its Business and Enterprise bundles.
Unlike Hangouts Chat, however, you can get Microsoft Teams on its own, separate from the bundle, and for free.
Prices for the paid license to Microsoft Office that includes Teams starts at $5 per person per month, so a little less than what Google charges.
Other team chat apps cost in the realm of $5 or $6 per person per month.
Those are the starting prices for Glip by RingCentral ($5), Twist by Doist ($5), and Flock ($6).
The bargain app in this category is Zoho Cliq, which charges on a sliding scale based on the total number of team members, with an average price of about $2 per person per month.
On the high end, Slack is the exception, starting at $8 per person per month.
Slack has a time-unlimited free tier of service, so you can fully try it out before committing to paying that high price.
Interface and Layout
Team chat apps are slowly breaking into two camps.
One camp uses a stream of posts that resembles Twitter in its flow.
The other contains each post so that replies to it stay grouped together.
Slack uses the stream.
Google Hangouts Chat uses containers.
If we step back and look at the overall structure of the app, Google Hangouts Chat's similar to just about any other team chat app.
A rail on the left holds a list of rooms (sometimes called channels) you've joined and direct messages you've had.
When you click on one of them, the room or private message area opens in the main part of the window.
Back to containers: Using the container method merely means there are visual cues that break up everything in the stream into conversations.
Picture each post as its own chat bubble.
All replies to that post go into the same chat bubble, and it gets bigger.
If you don't want to reply to that specific post and instead have a new idea, you make a new post, which goes into its own chat bubble.
Microsoft Teams and Twist have a layout that's similar.
In Twist, it's all laid out in such a way to almost resemble an email interface.
The apps that use a stream instead now sometimes have a feature called threads (Slack) or forking (Zoho Cliq) that allow people to reply to a particular message in a way that spins it off the stream.
Forking or threading a conversation makes it easier to follow.
Google Hangouts Chat Features
The most compelling features of Google Hangouts Chat have to do with how it integrates with other G Suite apps.
In that last sentence, I would like to emphasize "most" as a relative word and deemphasize "compelling." These features are the "most" interesting of what's available, but they aren't all that impressive.
Let's take the example of what happens when you share a Google Doc in Hangouts Chat.
If you copy and paste a link to a document, G Suite assumes that you want all the people in that room to have access to it.
A pop-up lets you know that Google Docs will make the file available to everyone in the room, and you have an opportunity to change your mind and get rid of the link if you messed up.
Another way Hangouts Chat integrates with G Suite is by making rooms and direct messages available in Gmail.
If you are someone who works in email, as it were, you can keep Gmail as your primary window and pop open the Hangouts Chat rooms and messages you want to see as little in-app windows.
It looks exactly like the old Hangouts window, which you might still use in a personal, non-business Gmail account.
You can also enlarge the window to take over where your inbox should be, if you need to dive more deeply into a conversation.
If you're accustomed to Slack, there are a few things about Google Hangouts Chat that may take some getting used to.
For example, all rooms are private by default.
When you set up a new room, you must choose whom to invite.
You can add people individually or using groups that may already be established in your G Suite account, such as a Sales Department.
You can invite the entire organization to a room, which lets you create fun, nonwork-related rooms for collegial socializing (what good is a business chat app if there isn't a room to talk about TV?); but in Google Hangouts Chat, that's not the default setting.
At least when you invite the entire organization to join your Fun-TV room, there isn't a company-wide email blast about it (thank your lucky stars for that), but people may have a hard time knowing it exists and that they can join it, considering they're used to being invited directly to each room.
Google Hangouts Chatdoesn't have broadcasting features.
Zoho Cliq has some, and they're pretty handy for large organizations.
A broadcasting channel or room is like a locked down space where only selected individuals, such as executives and the head of HR, can post.
Effectively, you can have one official channel for company announcements and never worry about those announcements getting cluttered up by comments and questions; you use another channel for the discussion.
Broadcasting also lets you have a one-way video call, like for important company announcements done live, that anyone in the team can join and watch when they see an alert for it.
Notifications and Bots
In terms of notifications, Google Hangouts Chat's are limited.
There are some decent settings for customizing your mobile app notifications differently from desktop and web, but you can't set keyword notifications the way you can in Slack.
For each room, your only options are all notifications or silence all except @ messages.
Of all the team messaging apps I've tested, Slack has the richest notification options.
In very busy and chatty teams, having the ability to finely tune your notifications is essential to being productive.
Another way you can customize your Hangouts Chat experience is by adding bots.
Though I'm tempted to call them integrations, Google calls them bots, and so I will, too.
There's a bot for Asana, which delivers automatic updates about activity in your Asana account.
The popular Polly bot is available for creating polls.
A Giphy bot lets you pull in animated Gifs, and so on.
All told, there aren't many, a little more than two dozen at last count.
That pales in comparison with the numerous apps and bots you can use with Slack.
Video and Audio Calls
Google Hangouts Chat technically does not have video and audio calling, nor screensharing options for video calls.
That said, calling features are totally integrated via G Suite in an app called Meet.
Meet in fact looks like it's a feature within Hangouts Chat, but it is in fact a separate app.
So, if you have Google Hangouts Chat, you necessarily also have video and audio calling, plus screensharing, unless your administrator disables it.
From every room and direct message, you can launch a video call and invite your colleagues to join.
To start a call, you have to find the Meet icon, which is invisible until you hover over the Reply field.
Then, it appears alongside other icons for attaching files, adding emoji, and posting a reply.
I've only done a few calls over the Meet app, and in my experience, the quality tends to be on par with Slack's video calling, which I've always found underwhelming.
Both have some lag issues.
For video calls, I much prefer to use Zoom.
An Option Only If You Have G Suite
Google Hangout Chats isn't a team messaging app that you can choose to use because it's the best option.
Rather, you first have to buy into G Suite.
There isn't a free trial to let you test it out, either.
Google Hangouts Chat isn't nearly compelling enough on its own to warrant a G Suite subscription.
If you have G Suite, it's worth poking around the app to see if it will meet your needs.
You could save a good deal of money by using an app you've already paid for, rather than add an expense onto your company's books with a separate team chat app.
If your team is already happy with another app, such as Editors' Choice Slack, getting people to switch may be an uphill battle.
Slack has more features, more integration options, and better notifications.
Pros
Conversations contained visually with no need for threading/forking.
Tight integration with other G Suite apps.
Good value if buying G Suite.
Cons
No free option to try; only available with G Suite business account.
Few notification settings.
Limited integrations and bots.
The Bottom Line
Google Hangouts Chat is Google's take on team messaging.
It's a middling app that won't compel you to buy G Suite.
If you're already paying for an account, though, you might consider it.
The confusingly named Google Hangouts Chat is Google's take on what a business messaging app should be.
I say confusing because it's different from the old Hangouts, and it's not a "chat" app.
It's a proper team messaging space along the same lines of Slack and Microsoft Teams.
This app, which is only available via a business G Suite account, isn't nearly as loaded with features and options as Editors' Choice Slack, but it keeps people connected.
It works much like any other business messaging app, with a few minor distinctions in its default settings and overall tenor.
Compared with Slack in particular, Hangouts Chat feels more closed than open, more staid than playful.
It's an option if you're already paying for G Suite, but it's not worth buying G Suite just for Hangouts Chat.
Google Hangouts Chat Pricing
If you want to use Google Hangouts Chat, you must have a G Suite subscription and account, which is a business-grade account.
There's no other way to use the app, so it isn't available to clubs, groups, or other kinds of teams.
Pricing for G Suite starts at $6 per person per month.
At that price, your team gets business-grade Gmail accounts, video and voice conferencing, team messaging, shared calendars, Google's office apps (Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.), 30GB of storage space per person in Google Drive, plus some basic business controls.
There are two more options at $12 and $25 per person per month that add a low-code app development environment, unlimited storage, and additional tools for business compliance.
It's difficult to compare the price of Google Hangouts Chat directly with other business messaging apps because it's sold as part of a larger package.
The only comparable package is Microsoft Office, which includes Microsoft Teams in its Business and Enterprise bundles.
Unlike Hangouts Chat, however, you can get Microsoft Teams on its own, separate from the bundle, and for free.
Prices for the paid license to Microsoft Office that includes Teams starts at $5 per person per month, so a little less than what Google charges.
Other team chat apps cost in the realm of $5 or $6 per person per month.
Those are the starting prices for Glip by RingCentral ($5), Twist by Doist ($5), and Flock ($6).
The bargain app in this category is Zoho Cliq, which charges on a sliding scale based on the total number of team members, with an average price of about $2 per person per month.
On the high end, Slack is the exception, starting at $8 per person per month.
Slack has a time-unlimited free tier of service, so you can fully try it out before committing to paying that high price.
Interface and Layout
Team chat apps are slowly breaking into two camps.
One camp uses a stream of posts that resembles Twitter in its flow.
The other contains each post so that replies to it stay grouped together.
Slack uses the stream.
Google Hangouts Chat uses containers.
If we step back and look at the overall structure of the app, Google Hangouts Chat's similar to just about any other team chat app.
A rail on the left holds a list of rooms (sometimes called channels) you've joined and direct messages you've had.
When you click on one of them, the room or private message area opens in the main part of the window.
Back to containers: Using the container method merely means there are visual cues that break up everything in the stream into conversations.
Picture each post as its own chat bubble.
All replies to that post go into the same chat bubble, and it gets bigger.
If you don't want to reply to that specific post and instead have a new idea, you make a new post, which goes into its own chat bubble.
Microsoft Teams and Twist have a layout that's similar.
In Twist, it's all laid out in such a way to almost resemble an email interface.
The apps that use a stream instead now sometimes have a feature called threads (Slack) or forking (Zoho Cliq) that allow people to reply to a particular message in a way that spins it off the stream.
Forking or threading a conversation makes it easier to follow.
Google Hangouts Chat Features
The most compelling features of Google Hangouts Chat have to do with how it integrates with other G Suite apps.
In that last sentence, I would like to emphasize "most" as a relative word and deemphasize "compelling." These features are the "most" interesting of what's available, but they aren't all that impressive.
Let's take the example of what happens when you share a Google Doc in Hangouts Chat.
If you copy and paste a link to a document, G Suite assumes that you want all the people in that room to have access to it.
A pop-up lets you know that Google Docs will make the file available to everyone in the room, and you have an opportunity to change your mind and get rid of the link if you messed up.
Another way Hangouts Chat integrates with G Suite is by making rooms and direct messages available in Gmail.
If you are someone who works in email, as it were, you can keep Gmail as your primary window and pop open the Hangouts Chat rooms and messages you want to see as little in-app windows.
It looks exactly like the old Hangouts window, which you might still use in a personal, non-business Gmail account.
You can also enlarge the window to take over where your inbox should be, if you need to dive more deeply into a conversation.
If you're accustomed to Slack, there are a few things about Google Hangouts Chat that may take some getting used to.
For example, all rooms are private by default.
When you set up a new room, you must choose whom to invite.
You can add people individually or using groups that may already be established in your G Suite account, such as a Sales Department.
You can invite the entire organization to a room, which lets you create fun, nonwork-related rooms for collegial socializing (what good is a business chat app if there isn't a room to talk about TV?); but in Google Hangouts Chat, that's not the default setting.
At least when you invite the entire organization to join your Fun-TV room, there isn't a company-wide email blast about it (thank your lucky stars for that), but people may have a hard time knowing it exists and that they can join it, considering they're used to being invited directly to each room.
Google Hangouts Chatdoesn't have broadcasting features.
Zoho Cliq has some, and they're pretty handy for large organizations.
A broadcasting channel or room is like a locked down space where only selected individuals, such as executives and the head of HR, can post.
Effectively, you can have one official channel for company announcements and never worry about those announcements getting cluttered up by comments and questions; you use another channel for the discussion.
Broadcasting also lets you have a one-way video call, like for important company announcements done live, that anyone in the team can join and watch when they see an alert for it.
Notifications and Bots
In terms of notifications, Google Hangouts Chat's are limited.
There are some decent settings for customizing your mobile app notifications differently from desktop and web, but you can't set keyword notifications the way you can in Slack.
For each room, your only options are all notifications or silence all except @ messages.
Of all the team messaging apps I've tested, Slack has the richest notification options.
In very busy and chatty teams, having the ability to finely tune your notifications is essential to being productive.
Another way you can customize your Hangouts Chat experience is by adding bots.
Though I'm tempted to call them integrations, Google calls them bots, and so I will, too.
There's a bot for Asana, which delivers automatic updates about activity in your Asana account.
The popular Polly bot is available for creating polls.
A Giphy bot lets you pull in animated Gifs, and so on.
All told, there aren't many, a little more than two dozen at last count.
That pales in comparison with the numerous apps and bots you can use with Slack.
Video and Audio Calls
Google Hangouts Chat technically does not have video and audio calling, nor screensharing options for video calls.
That said, calling features are totally integrated via G Suite in an app called Meet.
Meet in fact looks like it's a feature within Hangouts Chat, but it is in fact a separate app.
So, if you have Google Hangouts Chat, you necessarily also have video and audio calling, plus screensharing, unless your administrator disables it.
From every room and direct message, you can launch a video call and invite your colleagues to join.
To start a call, you have to find the Meet icon, which is invisible until you hover over the Reply field.
Then, it appears alongside other icons for attaching files, adding emoji, and posting a reply.
I've only done a few calls over the Meet app, and in my experience, the quality tends to be on par with Slack's video calling, which I've always found underwhelming.
Both have some lag issues.
For video calls, I much prefer to use Zoom.
An Option Only If You Have G Suite
Google Hangout Chats isn't a team messaging app that you can choose to use because it's the best option.
Rather, you first have to buy into G Suite.
There isn't a free trial to let you test it out, either.
Google Hangouts Chat isn't nearly compelling enough on its own to warrant a G Suite subscription.
If you have G Suite, it's worth poking around the app to see if it will meet your needs.
You could save a good deal of money by using an app you've already paid for, rather than add an expense onto your company's books with a separate team chat app.
If your team is already happy with another app, such as Editors' Choice Slack, getting people to switch may be an uphill battle.
Slack has more features, more integration options, and better notifications.
Pros
Conversations contained visually with no need for threading/forking.
Tight integration with other G Suite apps.
Good value if buying G Suite.
Cons
No free option to try; only available with G Suite business account.
Few notification settings.
Limited integrations and bots.
The Bottom Line
Google Hangouts Chat is Google's take on team messaging.
It's a middling app that won't compel you to buy G Suite.
If you're already paying for an account, though, you might consider it.
