Hangouts can range from informal chats between a closed group of participants to heavily optimized public Hangout “shows”.
You can choose to broadcast and live stream your Hangout through Hangouts On Air – and Hangouts are automatically recorded and added to the YouTube account associated with the admin...
You can choose to broadcast and live stream your Hangout through Hangouts On Air – and Hangouts are automatically recorded and added to the YouTube account associated with the admin.
Hangouts are restricted to invited participants by default, if you don’t set them to “Public” sharing.
You can also display and view a YouTube video within a Hangout. To do this:
- Open YouTube.com/live in your browser. You will see a stream of all currently live broadcasts
- In a different window, start your Hangout and invite your participants
- Once your Hangout is underway, go back to YouTube Live and select the video you want to share with your hangout
- Click on the “Share” link underneath the video. Copy the URL.
- Switch back to your Hangout. Open the video tab, enter the URL you copied and search for it.
- Once you locate it, click play.
You can join a Hangout without a webcam, though you may find that limiting. If you don’t have one, check with the Hangout admin to make sure participating is okay. Some admins don’t like a blank screen stuck in the middle of their hangout participants’ screen displays – especially if they are running a publicized, formal “show”.
Likewise, if you discover on joining the hangout that your webcam is not compatible (which seems to happen quite often) you may wish to ask if you should bow out.
Although bugs are still being ironed out of Google+ Hangouts and documentation can be confusing, the business and branding potential is enormous.
Best advice for Google+ Hangouts?
Start out simply with a small, closed group until you’ve got the hang of running one!