Hasta La Gadget!

Oct 08

Google’s Hangouts for Android could get text-message support

This screenshot, published at Android Police, shows that text-messaging could be coming to the Google Hangouts communications app.

(Credit: Android Police / screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

It looks like Google’s Hangouts app could soon absorb new communications abilities with integration of text and picture messaging, according to screenshots and a report that surfaced Monday.

Hangouts originally debuted as a video chat tool for Google+, but Google built into it the instant-messaging ability that formerly shipped in the Google Talk app for Android. Now it’s possible that SMS and MMS services also could be built in, according to a report at Android Police.

Google has promised SMS integration into Hangouts, so the biggest question about the feature was when and how it would arrive.

The screenshots posted there show messages received “via SMS” text messaging and a text-input field that prompts, “Send an SMS message.” It also shows options to turn on SMS messaging and to retrieve MMS picture messages.