For a long time, Gmail has optionally included tabs at the bottom for Chat, Spaces and Meeting, which integrate the functions of Google Chat and Google Meet into the application. Now, the Google Chat integration allows you to do calls and video calls directly from Gmail.
Until now, it was possible to send video calls in a chat, which were included as a link for a Google Meet meeting, but the latest integration is a direct person-to-person call or video call, as it would be for example in WhatsApp. This novelty is now being activated in both Gmail for Android and iOS for users with the latest version.
Hello, I’m calling you from Gmail
Google Hangouts is Google’s longest-running messaging application, but Google decided to turn the application to the professional public after creating Google Allo – rest in peace – and Google Duo instead. For its part, the Hangouts app was divided into two: Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet .. Allo ending in nothing and pandemic in between, the applications lost the Hangouts of the name, while the original Hangouts app still on death row.
Google Chat and Google Meet are separate applications, but Google decided to integrate them into Gmail as well, optionally. From the Chats tab you can chat with your Gmail contacts like old Hangouts, while the Meetings and Rooms tab focus on group video calls, like Zoom. Now, from the Chats tab you can do calls and video calls to a specific contact, from the top button panel.
That is, press the button on the phone or the camera and just start a call, without first having to create a room and attach it to the chat, as was already possible before. In a way, it’s the same as how Google Hangouts worked before. Curiously, video calls of this type will be available only in Gmail and not in the Google Chat application, which could mean that the application ends up disappearing in the future, since the functionality is already in Gmail.
Google advises us that these calls are available only in individual conversations (not in group chats) and as long as both people have the latest version of Gmail installed, both on Android and iOS. The feature is being activated now, but it could take time to become available to all users.
The summary is as follows: Google divides Hangouts into individual applications and then integrates them back into Gmail, which already integrated Hangouts when it was still Google Talk. And Hangouts is still alive.
More information | Google