NEW YORK: Google’s Hangouts is being used by more and more people from all over the world. At first, Skype was ruling the World. However, there is a competitor, Google’s Hangouts, which can steal Skype’s users.
Skype allows users to add up to nine people in a group video chat, but for that, if they live in the US, they must upgrade to Skype Premium and pay a monthly subscription of 4.99 dollars or 7.49 dollars per month, for a 3 month subscription. But it’s worth the money, because users can have group screen sharing, unlimited calls in their region, live chat customer support etc.
Hangouts allows the same number of participants in a group video chat, but users don’t have to pay a dollar. However, to broadcast their conversation with as many people as possible, use Hangouts on Air, and they can stream live to their blog/website/Youtube channel.
Skype can be used on devices that run on Windows, Windows Vista or XP, Mac OS X, Ubuntu and it’s compatible with browsers such as Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Hangouts supports the same platforms.
Skype-to-Skype calls are free, but to make calls from Skype to phones, users will have to pay a monthly subscription. In the US or Canada, they will be charged 2.99 dollars per month, and one minute is charged by 2.3 cents. With Skype’s Unlimited World plan, which costs 13.99 dollars per month, users can make unlimited calls in 8 countries, to landline and mobile phones.
With a Google Voice number users can make free calls in the US and Canada, but they can also call any other Google Hangouts user for free. To call on landlines or mobile calls, they will be charged depending on the rates charged by the country they are calling from and to.
To use Skype, users need to install the program and launch it every time to need to make a call. If they have an emergency and need their friend’s device to make calls, they have to install the program on that device.
Google Hangouts can be used by installing a web browser plug in and they will be able to make calls from any device, from their Gmail or Google+ account.
Once they do, they can call from Gmail or Google+ no matter whose device they’re using.
If users are business person and they need to communicate with their partners or colleagues, they will find screen sharing very useful. With Skype, users are established the video call, and with Skype Premium, they are allows to share their screen with a group of ten persons.
Hangouts is better because before adding a person to their video conference, first it allows users to test the video quality by creating a chat room that they can test.
