{"id":71092,"date":"2014-08-13T23:29:39","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T21:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/?p=71092"},"modified":"2025-07-02T00:32:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:32:27","slug":"google-hangouts-gets-facebook-chat-heads-in-leaked-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/google-hangouts-gets-facebook-chat-heads-in-leaked-experiment\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Hangouts gets Facebook \u2018Chat Heads\u2019 in leaked experiment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Google is experimenting with <strong>floating chat bubbles<\/strong> for its Hangouts (<a title=\"Google Hangouts for Android\" href=\"http:\/\/hangouts.en.softonic.com\/android\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Android<\/a> | <a title=\"Google Hangouts for Chrome\" href=\"http:\/\/google-talk-chrome.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chrome<\/a>| <a title=\"Google Hangouts for iOS\" href=\"http:\/\/hangouts.en.softonic.com\/iphone\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">iOS<\/a>) messaging service in a leaked experiment. Screenshots show floating bubbles which expand a chat with a contact when clicked on. This feature resembles the <a title=\"Facebook Chat Heads Android\" href=\"http:\/\/news.en.softonic.com\/facebook-messenger-for-android-get-chat-heads\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chat Heads feature<\/a> found in <strong>Facebook Messenger<\/strong> for Android and iPad.<\/p>\n<p>The leaked screenshot above shows a line of floating circles to the side of the screen. The green hangouts circle at the bottom lets you expand your contacts list with a search bar at the top. Once a contact is selected, a chat window expands to the left.<\/p>\n<p>If this feature is anything like Chat Heads it&#8217;ll allow users to chat anywhere from their computer. The circles will <strong>float above all other windows<\/strong> for easy access. They can be dragged and moved if blocking something on the screen. While the screenshots only show a desktop version, it&#8217;d be nice to see a similar feature on Android.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t expect to see this feature any time soon as the feature <strong>requires experimental developer tools<\/strong> only found in Google Chrome&#8217;s developer channel.<\/p>\n<p><em>Source: <a title=\"Caschys Blog\" href=\"http:\/\/stadt-bremerhaven.de\/exklusiv-ultraviolet-google-design\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Caschys Blog<\/a> | Via: <a title=\"Android Police\" href=\"http:\/\/www.androidpolice.com\/2014\/08\/13\/google-appears-to-be-testing-ultra-violet-a-new-hangouts-experience\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Android Police<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Related Stories<\/h3>\n<p><a title=\"Why Facebook Messenger permissions aren't unique or dangerous\" href=\"http:\/\/features.en.softonic.com\/why-facebook-messenger-permissions-arent-unique-or-dangerous\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Why Facebook Messenger permissions aren&#8217;t unique or dangerous<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Simple communication app Yo gets new features\" href=\"http:\/\/news.en.softonic.com\/simple-communication-app-yo-gets-new-features\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Simple communication app Yo gets new features<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Group screen sharing now free for Skype on Windows and Mac\" href=\"http:\/\/news.en.softonic.com\/group-screen-sharing-now-free-for-skype-on-windows-and-mac\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Group screen sharing now free for Skype on Windows and Mac<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Skype to discontinue support for Windows Phone 7\" href=\"http:\/\/news.en.softonic.com\/skype-to-discontinue-support-for-windows-phone-7\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Skype to discontinue support for Windows Phone 7<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Skype no longer works on Mac OS X Leopard or earlier versions (update)\" href=\"http:\/\/news.en.softonic.com\/skype-no-longer-works-on-mac-os-x-leopard-or-earlier-versions\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Skype no longer works on Mac OS X Leopard or earlier versions (update)<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><em>Follow Lewis on Twitter: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lewisleong\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@lewisleong<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google is experimenting with floating chat bubbles for its Hangouts (Android | Chrome| iOS) messaging service in a leaked experiment. Screenshots show floating bubbles which expand a chat with a contact when clicked on. This feature resembles the Chat Heads feature found in Facebook Messenger for Android and iPad. The leaked screenshot above shows a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/google-hangouts-gets-facebook-chat-heads-in-leaked-experiment\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Google Hangouts gets Facebook \u2018Chat Heads\u2019 in leaked experiment&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2033,"featured_media":71096,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[2620],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-71092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionhangouts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2033"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":330341,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71092\/revisions\/330341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71092"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=71092"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=71092"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=71092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}