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Google Hangouts 4.0: now simpler, faster, more beautiful

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Re: Google Hangouts 4.0: now simpler, faster, more beautiful

#81

Post by moreati »

angryasian wrote: post #69
izacus wrote: post #7

Of course, I still have to run Chrome just for a slow and terrible browser interface on the desktop. Which was a major annoyance (especially since for some reason using Safari extends battery life for a huge amount) that caused me to switch to Telegram.

>especially since for some reason using Safari extends battery life for a huge amount on a side note i see several people say this but using a 2015 mbp I don't really see this battery draining behavior. Can anyone point to benchmarks or has anyone actually done a real test on this assumption ?

The recent spike you've seen might trace back to http://blog.getbatterybox.com/which-browser-is-the-most-ener...

I make no claim about it's veracity, just saw the headline recently - probably on HN.

Re: Google Hangouts 4.0: now simpler, faster, more beautiful

#82

Post by runako »

angryasian wrote: post #69
izacus wrote: post #7

Of course, I still have to run Chrome just for a slow and terrible browser interface on the desktop. Which was a major annoyance (especially since for some reason using Safari extends battery life for a huge amount) that caused me to switch to Telegram.

>especially since for some reason using Safari extends battery life for a huge amount on a side note i see several people say this but using a 2015 mbp I don't really see this battery draining behavior. Can anyone point to benchmarks or has anyone actually done a real test on this assumption ?

The BatteryBox folks did some tests and posted the results:

http://blog.getbatterybox.com/which-browser-is-the-most-ener...

>> TL;DR; If you’re a MacBook user, you’re losing an average of 1 hour of total battery life by using Chrome. Firefox is a little better, but Safari is the clear winner. You’ll want to use Safari if you want to get the most battery out of your laptop.

Re: Google Hangouts 4.0: now simpler, faster, more beautiful

#83

Post by tdkl »

mtgx wrote: post #31
aesthetics1 wrote: post #14

I personally have moved on to Google Messenger for MMS. It's simpler and faster. I like the feature of being able to color-code my contacts in conversations too. It just makes it a lot easier to read through a group text that way. Hangouts is cool and all, but I wish Google would just decide which app they are going to push and get on with it.

I don't think IMs and SMS/MMS texts should mix. Period. Leave the legacy stuff to its own apps, and we just move on to new stuff without having to support that legacy burden. It's exactly why I welcomed TextSecure killing the SMS integration (it was even more annoying that it was asking you for it by default, as Hangouts does, too).

The mix would be great if Google wouldn't halfass it and made it like iMessage. If user is on Hangouts and online, send Hangout message. If not online/not on Hangouts, send SMS/MMS.

How hard can it be?

Re: Google Hangouts 4.0: now simpler, faster, more beautiful

#84

Post by enraged_camel »

ryandvm wrote: post #27

Hangouts is "okay" at best. I continue to be amazed that companies like Microsoft and Google are so bad at instant messaging that upstarts like Slack can eat their lunch with essentially hosted IRC and a pretty client.

You continue to be amazed? Really?

Companies that specialize in one thing will always trump those who have to spread their efforts along many areas. It's the difference between depth and breadth.

Re: Google Hangouts 4.0: now simpler, faster, more beautiful

#85

Post by xd1936 »

buckbova wrote: post #30
feld wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has the phone been sleeping / screen off / locked for a long time? Probably "offline" or something else describes this better. Is user actively using their phone? "online" It's simple. IM clients have figured this out years ago.

> Has the phone been sleeping / screen off / locked for a long time? Mine has been sleeping for an hour, but I'm right next to it and would answer an IM if sent. So no, not so simple.

That's why Hangouts has Online / Idle / Offline

Re: Google Hangouts 4.0: now simpler, faster, more beautiful

#86

Post by semiquaver »

livingparadox wrote: post #25

I CAN FINALLY GET MMS MESSAGES WITH MY GOOGLE VOICE NUMBER! Sorry for the caps. But that's been mildly annoying for a long time, so its kind of exciting to finally have a complete messaging system on google voice.

MMS for photos and videos have been in google voice (when used via hangouts) for about a year[1]. The (still very exiting) new feature is support for group texts which piggyback on MMS. Previously incoming group texts would appear as SMS messages from each individual recipient and it was not possible to send messages to the entire group.

[1] http://lifehacker.com/google-voice-gets-native-mms-support-b...

Re: Google Hangouts 4.0: now simpler, faster, more beautiful

#87

Post by acdha »

angryasian wrote: post #69
izacus wrote: post #7

Of course, I still have to run Chrome just for a slow and terrible browser interface on the desktop. Which was a major annoyance (especially since for some reason using Safari extends battery life for a huge amount) that caused me to switch to Telegram.

>especially since for some reason using Safari extends battery life for a huge amount on a side note i see several people say this but using a 2015 mbp I don't really see this battery draining behavior. Can anyone point to benchmarks or has anyone actually done a real test on this assumption ?

If you don't have Flash installed the power savings will go a long way towards making up for the difference between the two.

Re: Google Hangouts 4.0: now simpler, faster, more beautiful

#90

Post by e40 »

avolcano wrote: post #2

And here I was excited thinking that they'd finally fixed the terrible performance and interface of the browser app.

Yeah, the browser addon for Hangouts is literally the worst thing Google has ever done, IMO. On the Mac it is even worse.

I would be seriously surprised if anyone at Google actually used this POS.

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