Google Introduces Upgrade To Video Chat By Merging It With Google+ Hangouts [VIDEO]

Time and again Google has attempted to compete with rivals like Facebook in the social media sphere. This time around, Google is upgrading Google video chat and merging it with Google+ Hangouts.

The video chat upgrade was announced Monday on a Google blog where the older version of the video chat was based on peer-to-peer technology. The new version connects Google+ Hangouts to the video chat.

The upgrade won't change how users chat with people from their friend lists, but it provides more features if both parties have Google+. The blog said that "Hangouts utilizes the power of Google's network to deliver higher reliability and enhanced quality." This means that the Google+ user will now be able to video chat simultaneously with up to nine people, watch YouTube videos together, collaborate on Google documents and share their screens.