Google launches Hangouts for Gmail users in India; service yet to roll out

Six months after the service was launched in other countries, video chat service comes to India.

Hangout, the video chat feature launched with Google+, has now been made available for Gmail users in India. The Hangouts feature will replace the regular video chat feature and will allow multiple people to video chat at the same time, like in a video conference.

Although Google made the announcement in its official India blog today, the Hangouts feature is yet to go live. Once the service becomes available, you will need to activate your Google+ account to enable Hangout in Gmail. You will be able to start a Hangout by clicking on the requisite button that will appear on top of your chat panel in Gmail.

The blog explains, “You can continue to enjoy 1:1 video chat with any Gmail user, but now you’ll be able to add up to 9 people at once after they’ve upgraded to Google+. What’s more, with Hangouts you can watch YouTube videos with friends, collaborate on Google Docs, or play games by adding apps from the menu on the left. If you find yourself with a slow connection, just switch over to ultra low bandwidth mode to keep the conversation going.”

Google+ Hangouts for Gmail was first rolled out for certain countries back in July of last year.