With the on-going global health crisis, the world was forced to go online. The online world was not limited to entertainment and social media handles; rather, it extended its reach for regular office work. Connecting with clients and colleagues might have been initially challenging, but Google Hangouts made everything easy. One can now keep formal records of the conversation and updates on a particular project. Google Hangouts enables you to chat, make video & voice calls, and allows you to make group calls with up to 10 people at a time. You can connect with anyone from around the world. But it has its fair share of issues as well. Fortunately, you can resolve the problems on your own within a few minutes.
Use the following guide to resolve some of the most common Google Hangouts issues that you might be experiencing:
Cannot Send Messages
There are times when Hangouts disable your account from sending any messages. When this problem occurs, you will see a red error icon with an exclamation mark every time you try to send a message. Before checking the settings of the app, make sure that you are connected to the internet, whether you are using data, Wi-Fi, or a physical connection. If that’s not an issue, try signing out and in of Hangouts.
No Notification
At times, Hangouts fail to notify the users and don’t make any notification sound either. This issue occurs on both smartphones and PC, especially with the Hangouts Chrome extension. For a smartphone user, the following trick can work well:
Open the app and tap on the three-vertical-lined icon appearing at the top-left corner of your phone screen.
Click on Settings followed by your primary account name.
Under the Notifications section, select Messages and open the Sound settings.
The notification sound may be set to “Default notification sound.” If that’s the case, open this section and change the alert tone.
To fix the notification issue on incoming calls, repeat the same steps in the Notification section, but this time, select Incoming calls instead of Messages.
This method doesn’t work on PC, but you can try re-installing the extension.
Audio and Video Issues on Google Chrome
Experiencing audio and video issues is quite common on the app, but when a similar problem occurs on Chrome extension, the reason could be that some other extensions are interrupting it. To resolve this, try removing the extensions one by one and check if the issue prevails. Unfortunately, you’ll have to use this method until a software update is available. If the problem persists, try switching to Chrome Beta as it is a proven method to resolve the issue.
Browser Freezing
A lot of users experience browser freezing issues during video calls, conference calls, but it happens majorly when they try to share their screen. It can come off as a little unprofessional and embarrassing to be stuck with a frozen screen during an important call. Various factors could be responsible for this trouble, but it’s most commonly a video or audio driver problem. You can try updating your drivers on Windows by going to the Start menu. Then, click on Device Manager and select Display Adapters. Click on Update Driver to resolve the issue.
Hangouts Plugin Installation Issue
If you’re using Firefox browser, you won’t be able to use Hangout plugin as it doesn’t support Firefox. But for Google Chrome users, you don’t need a Hangout plugin as it is available on your Gmail’s side panel. The plugin is available only for Windows computers, but it stops working at times. The issue increases to the point where the users are prompted to re-install the plugin. But it fails to re-install on your computer. Try the fixes given below:
Install the Hangouts plugin and make sure it’s enabled by going to Internet Explorer. Then, go to Tools and click on Manage add-ons. Then click on ‘All Add-Ons,’ locate the Hangouts plugin and turn on the toggle.
Windows 8 users should turn on Desktop Mode.
Check your browser’s extensions and turn off any that use “click to run”.
You can also try restarting your computer to resolve the issue.
These were the most common problems users face all around the world. Try these fixes and see if it works for you. You can also try switching to Hangouts Chat or Google Meet (previously known as Hangout Meet).
Mia Watson is an avid technical blogger, a magazine contributor, a publisher of guides at Blogs Book, and a professional cyber security analyst. Through her writing, she aims to educate people about the dangers and threats lurking in the digital world. Visit My Site, webgeeks.uk.com
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