Beginner's Guide To Video Calling With Ease
Via Google Hangouts
The social-distancing and self-isolation measures necessarily brought in to deal with the Coronavirus come with the risk of increased loneliness and psychological as well as physical isolation. That in itself can of course prove harmful, so it is fantastic that we live at a time when very simple technology can be harnessed to counter the potential negative effects of the anti-Coronavirus measures.
Staying in touch by Video Calls (known as Video Conferencing or VC) on your computer or smartphone is one way of helping to alleviate loneliness - no matter how far apart you are from friends and loved-ones. You may never have used such technology before, and fear that such technology is ‘beyond you’ or that you will be unable to make it work. Thankfully, there are Video Call platforms out there which are very simple to install, and intuitive to use. This article and the step-by-step guide below will help you to get started.
Before moving to Glaisdale last year, I worked for Google on the Chrome OS team. My background is actually law rather than technology so I was then (and still consider myself to be, strangely!) something of a technophobe.
Coming into the company, I imagined it taking weeks, or even months, for me to understand the technology and the tools I was provided with to do my job, because I was coming at it as such a tech-novice. But nothing could have been further from the truth.
Introduced to Gsuite for the first time (Google’s equivalent of Microsoft Office) I was up and running, without a single tutorial, within moments, and, before my first day at Google was through, I knew I would never not use this technology for my work going forward, or indeed my own personal computing.
At the very heart of this technology - indeed the heart of Google’s business, is their own Video Conferencing (VC) facility - Google Hangouts. This technology was developed in-house in order to solve Google’s own business challenges and, today, Google Hangouts is used more than 275,000 times a day, across more than 20,000 meeting rooms just within Google itself. It is literally how Google operates and the lifeblood of the business.
Google Hangouts was built to allow incredibly easy VC access and to allow multiple users to connect from across the Globe. Unsurprisingly, businesses have adopted this technology for their own VC needs (and local farmers may want to consider using this to stay in touch with shops they supply, for example) but this is equally available and invaluable to individuals as well as businesses, and in these difficult times of social distancing and self-isolation, it would be well worth considering adding the Google Hangouts function to your computer, so that you can very easily stay in touch with friends and relatives no matter where they are in the world, and no matter how much of a technophobe you, or they, are!
To use Google Hangouts you will need a Google account - head to https://myaccount.google.com/ to set one up. If you have an email address with @gmail.com you already have one!
It will work on a Windows PC, an Apple phone or notebook, any Android phone or any Chromebook. A few very, older, PC’s may not work. It will also work on a Chrome browser, an Internet Explorer one or Safari (Apple Mac).
You can use Hangouts to start an immediate video call, schedule a video call for later and make phone calls using your home or business wifi (and so save some money!)
Before you start your first video call:
Once you have your google account set up, to start a conversation follow these steps:
Staying in touch by Video Calls (known as Video Conferencing or VC) on your computer or smartphone is one way of helping to alleviate loneliness - no matter how far apart you are from friends and loved-ones. You may never have used such technology before, and fear that such technology is ‘beyond you’ or that you will be unable to make it work. Thankfully, there are Video Call platforms out there which are very simple to install, and intuitive to use. This article and the step-by-step guide below will help you to get started.
Before moving to Glaisdale last year, I worked for Google on the Chrome OS team. My background is actually law rather than technology so I was then (and still consider myself to be, strangely!) something of a technophobe.
Coming into the company, I imagined it taking weeks, or even months, for me to understand the technology and the tools I was provided with to do my job, because I was coming at it as such a tech-novice. But nothing could have been further from the truth.
Introduced to Gsuite for the first time (Google’s equivalent of Microsoft Office) I was up and running, without a single tutorial, within moments, and, before my first day at Google was through, I knew I would never not use this technology for my work going forward, or indeed my own personal computing.
At the very heart of this technology - indeed the heart of Google’s business, is their own Video Conferencing (VC) facility - Google Hangouts. This technology was developed in-house in order to solve Google’s own business challenges and, today, Google Hangouts is used more than 275,000 times a day, across more than 20,000 meeting rooms just within Google itself. It is literally how Google operates and the lifeblood of the business.
Google Hangouts was built to allow incredibly easy VC access and to allow multiple users to connect from across the Globe. Unsurprisingly, businesses have adopted this technology for their own VC needs (and local farmers may want to consider using this to stay in touch with shops they supply, for example) but this is equally available and invaluable to individuals as well as businesses, and in these difficult times of social distancing and self-isolation, it would be well worth considering adding the Google Hangouts function to your computer, so that you can very easily stay in touch with friends and relatives no matter where they are in the world, and no matter how much of a technophobe you, or they, are!
To use Google Hangouts you will need a Google account - head to https://myaccount.google.com/ to set one up. If you have an email address with @gmail.com you already have one!
- Important: Only the person setting up the Hangout will need a Google account - the other people on the call will be able to access the call without it.
- A computer or phone with a camera and microphone.
- An internet connection.
It will work on a Windows PC, an Apple phone or notebook, any Android phone or any Chromebook. A few very, older, PC’s may not work. It will also work on a Chrome browser, an Internet Explorer one or Safari (Apple Mac).
You can use Hangouts to start an immediate video call, schedule a video call for later and make phone calls using your home or business wifi (and so save some money!)
Before you start your first video call:
- Connect a camera, microphone, and speakers to your computer (most laptops have these built-in anyway).
- When asked to use your computer's camera and microphone, click Allow.
- Important: You might need to turn on permissions for your camera and microphone in your computer's system settings.
Once you have your google account set up, to start a conversation follow these steps:
- On your computer, go to hangouts.google.com. You may need to ‘sign in’ to your Google account.
- You’ll then be invited to make a Video Call, a Phone Call or send a Message. (see Figure 1)
- Click on either Video Call or Phone Call and you’ll be asked to ‘invite someone to join you’ (see Figure 2)
Figure 1
|
Figure 2
|
Figure 3
- Enter and select a name or email address and that person will be called.
- You should now be in the Hangout!
- To finish the call press the big red button. (see Figure 3)
To schedule a video call for the future:
- Go to https://calendar.google.com/
- Select the day you want to schedule the call for.
- Double click on the time you want to schedule the call for.
- You’ll then be asked to create a title and confirm the time.
My friend and I have already used Google Hangouts to set up virtual pub sessions every Thursday evening to see us through the next few weeks!
If you need further guidance and support the following sites will help:
https://support.google.com/hangouts
https://www.wikihow.com/Use-Google-Hangouts
https://www.techradar.com/uk/how-to/how-to-use-google-hangouts
Daniel Marosif
If you need further guidance and support the following sites will help:
https://support.google.com/hangouts
https://www.wikihow.com/Use-Google-Hangouts
https://www.techradar.com/uk/how-to/how-to-use-google-hangouts
Daniel Marosif
