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For those of you that have been reluctant to participate in Hangouts calls with friends or family simply because you didn’t want to set up a Google+ account, we understand and we’re happy to report that Google, as promised back in July has made the G+ profile requirement to participate in multi-way or single person to person Hangouts video calls null and void. Although we didn’t mind having the G+ requirement there because we at the site are active users of Google+, Google is doing this for the people that didn’t want to have the need for another social network account that they might never use. If you’re wanting to use Hangouts video calls on Android or iOS now and you are nowhere to be found on G+, that’s OK as you’re officially able.
This new Hangouts update doesn’t apply to just Android and iOS users, those who have Google apps accounts on desktop and without a Google+ profile are included in this, so now there is no reason not to accept that Hangouts call from your family across the country. This might not be the last Google+ integrated app/service that we see get this kind of treatment, as Photos has been mentioned to also have a disconnection from the Google+ account requirement at some point in time.
On an unrelated note, Google started their rollout of the Hangouts and Google Voice integration yesterday which many of you may have noticed by way of the message popup that displayed upon opening Hangouts. If this was the case, some people are having the integration reversed in light of another update that will be rolling out, so if you saw the integration features yesterday but now they appear to be missing, never fear as Google states things will come back shortly. The Google Voice integration just to recap, requires the latest version of Hangouts, and the Hangouts Dialer app if you want to place calls from within Hangouts using your Google Voice number. Now that Hangouts is independent from G+, are some of you more willing to use it then before? If you haven’t used Hangouts yet, it’s a great alternative to similar apps like Skype, and you can start a Hangout by pointing your browser to g.co/hangout.