How to Add Someone on Hangouts

Video call apps were essentials to keep communication with family, friends and co-workers during the COVID lockdown period. We had to get used to talking through video call tools that offer more realistic communication than just chatting.

Hangouts is one such messaging tool developed and owned by Google, offering users to keep in touch through messaging, free video and voice calls, in individual or group chats.

As such, Google Hangouts was the platform of choice for many organizations to organize smooth workflow and communication. Hence, many of us needed to learn how to navigate the platform in a short period of time, including how to add new people to hangouts.

So, if you still haven’t got the hang of adding people to your Hangouts, no worries. Read below to learn how to add someone on Google Hangouts on your computer or mobile phone.

How to add someone on Hangouts on your computer

If the person you’d like to invite to your Google Hangouts is not in your contacts, first you need to get their email or phone number in order to add them. But once you have that information, here’s how to do it:

1. On your Mac or PC, go to hangouts.google.com.
2. Click on “New Conversation” in the left upper corner of the screen.
3. Next, a pop-up window will appear where you need to enter the person’s Gmail ID and click “Invite” on the right in the window.

When the invited person confirms your invitation, you can start a conversation with them.

How to add someone on Hangouts using Android

You need to know the Gmail ID of the person with whom you wish to chat. To add them follow the steps:

1. Open the Hangouts app on your Android phone.
2. Tap on the plus sign “+” in the lower-right corner of your screen.

3. Enter the Gmail ID of the person who you want to add and select them from the suggestions below.
4. If the person you want to add is not available on Hangouts, you will see the “Invite” option. Click on it to invite the person.

Note: When you send the invitation to the person, you will receive a notification that they are yet to confirm your invitation. Once they have confirmed, you can chat with them and make voice and video calls as well.

How to add someone on Hangouts using iPhone

1. Open the Hangouts app on your iPhone.
2. Tap "Contacts" or "Favorites."
3. Select the person you’d like to chat or video call with.
4. Enter your message and click “Send”.

If the person you want to chat with is not on Hangouts, you will again need to send them an invitation and wait for them to confirm before you are able to chat or talk to them on Hangouts.

Note: In July 2021, Google announced that they started replacing classic Hangouts with Google Chat as the default chat application for all users unless they have explicitly opted out. Users that already have “Chat only”, “Chat preferred”, or “Chat Hangouts Only” selected, or users with both services turned off will not be affected, Google stated. The replacement was effective as of August 2021.

Google also said that beginning of late 2021, classic Hangouts will no longer be supported and all remaining users will be migrated to Google Chat.

Chat is integrated into many other Google services. Did you know that you can also chat in Google docs?