Hangouts calls not working: How to fix

Google Hangouts is a reliable and productive tool for arranging a video meeting, conference call or audio conversation with your friend, colleague, partner or customer. However, you can stumble upon some issues while using it. In this article, we will explain how to resolve the most common problems with the messenger’s operations if Hangouts is not working properly.

Google Hangouts: settings and permissions

When you are using the messaging service for the first time, during your initial connection to the conference room you are asked to grant the app the permission to access your camera and microphone. These Google Hangouts settings should be specified if you want to accept incoming video calls and take part in audio conversations as well. If you want to make sure that the option of providing permission to the webcam and the microphone is enabled, arrange a call to a collocutor and in the calling window click the tiny camera button at the upper-right corner of the screen.

After you click the icon, the mini form with Hangouts settings appears. Make sure that the “Continue allowing web-site to access your camera and microphone” tweak is enabled. This is an obligatory condition for steady video and audio connection between you and your friend.

Video call not working: How to fix

If you have problems with Hangouts video calls, make sure that your camera is correctly plugged in to your computer and is turned on. If you are connecting any of your hardware via USB port and the video quality is poor, check once again whether you need to install a driver from the official web-page of the developers. If the app doesn’t provide video connection at all, make sure that none of other apps is using the camera at the moment.

Also, the reason can be that during the video chat the camera is simply disabled. This explanation is quite common, so click the camera button at the bottom screen section if your friend cannot see your picture during the call.

The same concerns mobile Android and iOS apps. The same camera button is available in there, so you can toggle between enabling and disabling the video on your mobile device.

Google Hangouts microphone not working: How to fix

The problems with microphone working are not rare. You could have connected it incorrectly, your Windows version could be incompatible with the actual driver, or your mic might be broken.

Let’s check whether Hangouts accepts the device signal, and whether your interlocutor can hear your voice:

• in the calling window, click the gear icon in the upper part of the app to go to the settings

  

• in the Microphone field, try to switch on the microphone, and after each test speak out loud and ask whether the person hears you within the online conference.

  

If there is still no audio, the problem is definitely with your microphone, not the Hangouts settings or configuration. If your Google Hangouts microphone is not working, and you still don’t know the reason why, try to test it in another app (Skype, for instance). In order to get a detailed info about Skype’s test call feature, refer to the “How to make a Skype test call” FAQ guide.