Google's Hangouts Gets An Outlook Plugin, Full Integration

Hangouts, Google's silver-bullet replacement for all their communication platforms, is coming to Outlook. Via Google Enterprise, we learn that a plugin for Outlook now makes it possible to start, join, or otherwise manage Hangouts from within the Microsoft enterprise service.

According to Google, any administrator of your office PC can go to the appropriate Google Tools page and download the plugin. It will add two buttons to the Outlook ribbon; one for scheduled calls, and one for unscheduled. You can also schedule a Hangout from within Calendar, and invite others to join in.

If your office (or a corresponding office you're chatting with) uses Google's Chromebox for Meetings, both can join in. All those with the Chromebox have to do is enter the meeting name via the remote, and they'll join straight away.

Between Outlook clients and those professionals on-the-go, Hangouts is rapidly becoming a true cross-platform enterprise solution. Google is also positioning it as a robust Skype competitor, with a big plus in Hangouts being free to use. The plugin is available now, so head over to the Tools page to download or tell your administrator about it!

Source: Google Enterprise