A very crisp and fresh replacement for the rather dated Google Talk, the standalone Hangouts app for Android is quite a facelift. Features-wise, it is all swimmingly swipey and let’s you do good things like join a video hangout in just chat mode. I’m surprised Google have not (yet?) integrated SMS messaging and even emails into this app.
However, the lack of chat availability and user status is a big letdown. I used to use Google Talk a lot for work and completely abhor the idea of messaging someone who isn’t online and on work-mode. I miss the list of green bubble friends and hope it comes back in some form.