Google Hangouts updated with SMS, HD video and more

Google has made a huge announcement regarding their Hangouts app during the 'A Morning with Google+' event with +Vic Gundotra. While the update isn't live yet, Hangouts will be receiving features like SMS support, HD video and much more when it arrives.

SMS support is something users have been wanting for quite some time now and now you will be able to use Hangouts to send and receive text messages as well. We assume this feature will only be available to Android users, due to iOS restrictions though. However there are many other features which will be available across both platforms.

While the updates are not live yet, you will be able to download them using the following links:

	Android	iOS
Download
Price	Free	Free
Requirements	Android 2.3 or greater	iOS 6.0 or greater

In the messaging side of the app, it will now be very easy to share your location with someone in a chat. There will be a pin icon which will grab your location from Google Maps and share with someone. Google is also adding support for sharing and playing animated GIFs right in the message stream.

On the video side of things there are a number of cool enhancements. Starting today, Hangouts will support HD video streaming on all platforms. Google is also adding the auto-awesome experience to Hangouts videos to help adjust brightness of webcam streams, and beyond that there are a number of other improvements planned. However it is unclear if features like altering colors, and focus in a video chat will be coming to mobile immediately.