I have just reported several issues and ideas related with this nice Google Hangouts Android application:
- The name Hangouts is not popular and hard to remember. Abandoning “Google Chat” or “Google Talk” was a bad idea. People tend to remember short names and popular words such as “Skype” or “Viber”. This may be funny but people really cannot remember “Hangouts” well.
- Receiving calls is misleading. There are several different ways to answer an incoming call in Hangouts. Most common way is to press a button and then drag it onto an icon that is not visible until you press a button. Another way is top view pop-up which could have color buttons in addition to small icons. Older people have problem with this. Average non-geek user simply needs Green Answer and Red Reject button.
- Hangouts would be simpler to use and more popular if it worked just as an ordinary Phone Call application. Non-geek users have this habit already on how to use Phone Call application, that Hangouts should leverage.
- Hangouts voice/video call should be available directly from a Contact Book if gmail address is present. Just as phone call.
- There are Android devices that offer hardware phone buttons (such as LG Wine Smart). Green Connect and Red Disconnect buttons should be also available to perform actions in Hangouts.
These simple ideas arised from observing older people trying to use Hangouts to videocall their family members..
