Show HN: Faster access to Google hangouts

<a href="http://plus.google.com/hangouts/_" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;plus.google.com&#x2F;hangouts&#x2F;_</a>

If you want a permanent, unique, hangout URL, set up a Google+ event which finishes in 100 years and make Hangout the location. Voila - the hangout URL persists even if no-one&#x27;s in it.

I think this works better for me:<p><a href="http://hangouts.google.com/start" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;hangouts.google.com&#x2F;start</a><p>It is better for me because, now that I&#x27;ve visited the URL, if I start typing &#x27;hangout&#x27; in the address bar, this comes up first for me and I just hit enter (and it&#x27;s easy to remember). It&#x27;s the little things.

<a href="https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/meet/" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;plus.google.com&#x2F;hangouts&#x2F;_&#x2F;meet&#x2F;</a>

Nice, it amazes me how difficult it is to start a Hangout.

I don&#x27;t understand, how is this faster? There is nothing on the page but a button that says Start. When I click it, it takes me to <a href="https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;plus.google.com&#x2F;hangouts&#x2F;_</a> which then redirects to a page that says &quot;Please wait&quot; for about 5 seconds. After than I get another redirect to a google page asking me to install a plugin. Why do I need a plugin to use Hangouts? At the moment I just open my Gmail tab. What problem exactly are you trying to solve here?

It works really well on Chrome. Sadly, it does not work on Firefox.

The Hangouts UI is a disgrace to Google. I can&#x27;t count the # of times I&#x27;ve tried to get even technical people to join a Hangout and it took an extra 5-10 minutes to sort out. Finding the initiation button is horribly hard, the UI is clumsy and unintuitive for those used to Skype or other video calling tools, and even inviting a new person to a hangout is maddeningly hard, particularly if they&#x27;ve got multiple Google IDs.

Pretty minimal page!<p><pre><code> &lt;!DOCTYPE html&gt; &lt;html&gt; &lt;head&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;generator&quot; content= &quot;HTML Tidy for Linux&#x2F;x86 (vers 25 March 2009), see www.w3.org&quot;&gt; &lt;meta charset=&quot;UTF-8&quot;&gt; &lt;title&gt;Hang0ut - Faster access to Google Hangouts&lt;&#x2F;title&gt; &lt;link rel=&quot;stylesheet&quot; href=&quot;&#x2F;main.css&quot; type=&quot;text&#x2F;css&quot;&gt; &lt;link href=&quot;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;fonts.googleapis.com&#x2F;css?family=Lato&quot; rel=&quot;stylesheet&quot; type= &quot;text&#x2F;css&quot;&gt; &lt;&#x2F;head&gt; &lt;body&gt; &lt;div id=&quot;content&quot;&gt; &lt;h1&gt;hangout&lt;&#x2F;h1&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;plus.google.com&#x2F;hangouts&#x2F;_&quot;&gt;&lt;&#x2F;a&gt; &lt;div id=&quot;button&quot;&gt; &lt;span id=&quot;btn-txt&quot;&gt;Start&lt;&#x2F;span&gt; &lt;&#x2F;div&gt; &lt;&#x2F;div&gt; &lt;div id=&quot;name&quot;&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;federicocarrone.com&#x2F;&quot;&gt;Federico Carrone&lt;&#x2F;a&gt;&lt;&#x2F;h2&gt; &lt;&#x2F;div&gt; &lt;div id=&quot;why&quot;&gt; &lt;p&gt;Faster access to google hangouts&lt;&#x2F;p&gt; &lt;&#x2F;div&gt; &lt;&#x2F;body&gt; &lt;&#x2F;html&gt;</code></pre>

I like that the background image is almost 3 megs.

If you have Alfred, this is a great workflow for this problem: <a href="https://github.com/wallace/google_hangout_workflow" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;wallace&#x2F;google_hangout_workflow</a>

Not working for me on Chrome 37 OS X, interestingly enough. Error in console is &#x27;Uncaught ReferenceError: gapi is not defined&#x27;. My bet is on an HTTP&#x2F;HTTPS discrepancy, but I&#x27;m not sure.

Is there a way to do a minimal-click start to Google Hangouts on Air. I really like it for screencasting when I&#x27;m giving a lecture but it takes a few minutes to set up and get going.

<a href="http://g.co/hangout" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;g.co&#x2F;hangout</a>

I don&#x27;t use Google hangouts because I don&#x27;t want a Google+ profile.

There is no problem, and this is no solution.

This works better for me:<p>1. Close laptop<p>2. Hangout with friends in person