Google HangOuts are video conferencing with up to ten people in the room. They’re pretty incredible to experience when you have that many because they’re ‘real time’. And it really feels like a new form of communication. So let me just begin by showing you where the buttons are. So on this side bar here, if you look you go to more and very often you’re going to find that the hangouts will be here but you can drag and drop the hangouts into the sidebar. In fact, you can move any of the icons around to suit where you’d rather have them be. So now we see the hangouts. I’m going to click and it’ll take me to another screen. Then I’m going to come across the press ‘start a hangout’.

HOW TO: So this is the start a hangout screen. The first thing I want to do is to decide who to invite. So if I click in here, and you can see I have a few options. If I choose my circles, that would invite everybody that is in ‘my circles’. If I choose ‘public’, you’ll see here that this allows anyone on Google Plus in join. Once you share it ‘public’, it can’t be undone. So you have to use that one with care.

Or I could go ‘extended circles’. Extended circles is anyone who my circles have in their circles, and it will allow them to join the hangout. Alternatively I can just add in individual’s name. So for instance, I’ll add in Linda Dee. I can also add in an email address which is very useful for people who haven’t fully embraced Google Plus yet. So as it happens on this one, I’m going to invite a few people from a circle which I have here the Commoogling circle and go from there. Next I’m going to name the hang out. This is the Commoogling Hangout.