Google today sought to provide more information about its new Google Hangouts tool and the evolution of its messaging and voice products.
Hangouts was announced last week, and encompasses instant messaging (old Google Talk) and video chats on the web, and Android and iOS devices. According to Google, the current version of Hangouts does not support outbound calls from Gmail (via desktop browsers), but it does support inbound calls to Google Voice numbers. Google Hangouts will soon support inbound and outbound calls via desktop-based Hangouts.
Google suggests that people who rely on this Gmail feature continue to use the older Google Talks tool (those who update to the new Hangouts will lose the functionality temporarily). Further, Google said “Hangouts is designed to be the future of Google Voice” and that more seamless integration between Google Voice and Google Hangouts is on the way.
