Google has provided us with so many great apps in our Android smartphones. Google Play Music, Google Photos, etc. are the ones that come pre-loaded on most of the Android phones nowadays so that you don’t need to download another app for the features that these Google apps have got. Similarly, Google’s own Hangouts messenger comes pre-loaded on a lot of phones and is a very under-rated instant messenger. Though all the focus is on WhatsApp, Viber, and Facebook Messenger, the free to download Hangouts app isn’t incapable by any means.
If you have been using Hangouts for quite some time, you will accept that it has got better with time, which is why Google decided to use it as a replacement for the chat box in Gmail. Well, Hangouts has come a long way and has got better with timely updates and addition of great features. Well, Google has outed another update today for Hangouts that is available to download for free. This new update brings version 7.0.113001250 (22891319), and the total size of the app is now 26.44 MB. Android 4.1 is the minimum requirement for the latest version of hangouts.
Hangouts version 7.0, apart from a few design tweaks, comes with some new features like conversation shortcuts and on the home screen and quick reply. So you can now reply to messages directly from the notifications without having to open the full Hangouts app, thus saving you a few precious seconds. You can add shortcuts to conversations on your home screen by selecting the new Save to home screen option in Hangouts’ overflow menu. Talking about the design tweaks, checkboxes have been replaced with toggles, and the sharing dialog box has got a more Material look now.
Google has released two different versions of this new Hangouts app update- one is Hangouts 7.0.113001250 (arm64) (560-640dpi) and the other one is Hangouts 7.0.113001250 (400-480dpi). The update is being rolled out currently, so you might not receive it immediately. You can wait for the notification to arrive, or you can manually download Hangouts v7.0 free from mirror sites like apkmirror.com or directly from the Google Play Store (check out the new Play Store update here).