Google lets you Private Message in Hangouts now

Google is continuing to update its social network API, this time adding the ability to private message your pals when you're in a Hangout.

This brings the Hangout API to version 1.2, not only making it possible to communicate without others listening in, but also integrating new video and sound features. Now those running an On Air hangout can control who exactly appears during a video broadcast and you can now add sound effects to it too.

Google says this could work well with a laugh track, but who isn't going to add a few lasers to their show?

A few other tweaks have been made as well, including the abilty to add a topic for a hangout and to display the locale of the person who created it. All of these are detailed nicely in Google's new developer log.

Private messages work as you'd expect them too – not necessarily if you expected them in the first version of the API – with the ability to send secret messages to others in the hangout through a simple text input. Google pointed out in the devlog that you don't necessarily need to type in the whole name either, or be 100 per cent accurate, just enough that the API knows who you're talking about.

KitGuru Says: Does this make Google + more exciting? Not really, but it does make it more functional. With Twitter circling the wagons somewhat with its API, Google is in a prime position to capitalise on disgruntled developers – we'll have to wait and see if it does.

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