How to use Google Hangouts On Air

Google Hangouts on Air is a special studio for live streaming literally everything: a webinar, a concert, a sport match, a talk show or a game walkthrough. No matter what are you are going to stream, you achieve a full package of tools for adapting your broadcasting to the highest standards and to provide your subscribers the best content. The Hangouts on Air utility is especially useful for video-bloggers who are accustomed to generating a quality content. In this tutorial, we will describe how does Hangouts On Air work, how to make a proper setting up and enable the feature from the very start.

As the developers claim, in the late 2019 Hangouts on Air is expected to be replaced with https://youtube.com/webcam service. However, until the official announcement is made, you can still use the component. Moreover, some of the plugin’s abilities have been ported to the new web-service, so your former streaming experience won’t be wasted.

How to work with Google Hangouts on Air and YouTube Live platforms?

The Google Hangouts on Air service is tightly integrated with YouTube, so all the settings, tools and registration routines are made on YouTube.

Here is the instruction on how to go live streaming in Google Hangouts on Air with the YouTube Live platform:

• The initial step is to go to https://www.youtube.com/my_live_events. This gives you access to Live Streaming Events in the Creator Studio.
• Click the “Enable live streaming” option to initiate the broadcasting live from your Hangouts on Air user account.

  

• On the first step, you are suggested to complete the Hangouts on Air verification routine to confirm that you are not a bot but a real YouTuber (blogger or streamer). Select the country you are located in and pick the method of the verification code’s delivery: through automated voice message or via SMS.

  

• Once this is done, you can specify a valid phone number you want to apply for the Google Hangouts on Air account verification. Type in your phone number and click the “Submit” button.

  

• Now, you should have already received the code on your phone. When the SMS or incoming voice message is received, type in the inbound code into the text field provided.

  

• When this phase is accomplished, you see a congratulations message, which means that all entered data was correct. Just click “Continue” to proceed with the Google Hangouts on Air registration.

  

• Now, we have walked through all Hangouts on Air preliminary setting up stages. Starting from this moment, you need to wait 24 hours until your account for live streaming is activated. Once it is activated, you can go streaming live via Hangouts on Air right away.

  

• Your Hangouts on Air account is activated, and you can start streaming.

How to schedule a stream within a timeline via Google Hangouts on Air service?

You can either create a live event in the scheduler by specifying the starting and the ending time of the streaming session, or start the streaming process immediately, without setting up.

In order to create an event in the scheduler:

• Go to the Creator Studio manager and click “Create live event” within the “Events” section to initiate the setting up routine of the streaming session.

  

• Now, specify the basic info regarding the stream: the title, the starting and ending time, description, tags (so that the people who are searching for the content based on specific topic tags could find your stream on the YouTube feed among the suggestions), how you want your stream to be identified (as public, private or unlisted), and type of stream, as it is recognized by the server (“Quick” via Camera or Google Hangouts on Air service, or “Custom” with more encoding options to be provided).

  

• After all of the noted above settings are specified, go to the “Advanced settings” tab. To make your content more individualised and relevant, investigate all of the settings available in this specific tab, fill in the data and set the checkboxes properly to submit the streaming session metadata to the server. Even though most of the tweaks in the “Advanced settings” tab (such as live chat, the language of the video and enabling comments section) are optional, if you want to find the audience which would definitely appreciate the content you are streaming, take a closer look at this section and provide as much information as you can.

  

• However, the clarification of the details in the “Advanced settings” tab is optional. Hereby, you can immediately switch to the timeline scheduler by clicking the “Create event” button in the top or bottom-right corner.

  

• The event is generated. You can check out the starting and the ending time of the streaming session in plan. Your channel subscribers will receive a notification about the scheduled start of the stream in their YouTube feed. If you want to start the stream without waiting for the scheduled time, click the “Start Hangout on Air” button in the “Events” section.

  

• You get access to the primary Hangouts on Air visual interface. Let’s find out what you can do here, and what are the main abilities of the platform in general.

Hangouts on Air: features and options

When you access the service for the first time, the general agreement about the service usage conditions appears. Look through it and move forward to the main window by setting the checkbox and clicking the “Okay, got it!” button.

On this stage, we enter the primary Hangouts on Air area. Here you can manage your video and audio settings, tune the web-camera options and activate various modules that interact with your runtime environment.

Let’s discover what opportunities does this tab provide.

How to add people to the broadcast

• If you want to add new people, click the “Invite people” button in the top-center panel.

  

• Specify the email addresses for the invites to be sent. Type in the emails in the lower text box and click “Invite”.

  

• Once the invites are delivered to the specified contacts, they will get an invitation to join the broadcasting session. After they join, you can share your host permissions with them and have a multi-person broadcasting session together.

How to mute the microphone

If you want to toggle the microphone to the silenced mode, click the corresponding button in the toolbar above.

How to to turn the camera off/on

If you want to stream only the audio part of the session, you can disable your camera and only record your voice. The corresponding button will help you with that.

How to adjust your video quality settings

You can also configure the quality of the video. The higher quality you set up, the more network resources are applied, as well as the bandwidth. If you have a medium or low-speed Internet connection, set the quality level to the last position.

How to configure the webcam, speakers, and microphone settings?

You can customize the audio level of the speakers and the microphone, as well as turn the camera settings on by picking the actual device from the list of cameras available on your computer. In general, the choice of settings is not too large, but in combination with the setting up of the HD resolution described in the previous paragraph, you can adapt the quality of the active broadcast to your bandwidth load.

How to leave the call

To leave the call, click the last icon in the center panel of the Hangouts On Air area. After you leave, the broadcasting session is ceased.

How to manage the chat during the streaming session via Hangouts on Air?

Most of the streams contain chats or conversations available for the visitors. The viewers can communicate with the streamer, ask questions and discuss topics related to the subject of the stream. You can watch the actual chat by clicking the chat button in the upper-left corner of the Hangouts on Air window:

• move your cursor to the left, and the pop-up panel with controls appears
• when the button is pressed, the chat will appear on the right of the window.

  

Presenting a separate window or the whole screen

During the stream, you can present only a particular window or process that runs in the operating environment. After such an option is specified, the visitor won’t be distracted from the actual content being shown by the host.

In order to specify a window or another area to screencast:

• click the “Screenshare” button in the pop up-panel on the left of the Hangouts on Air window.

  

• choose the entire screen to be presented to the viewers, or only a specific window instead, and click the “Share” button.

  

Auxiliary Hangouts on Air plugins

In order to extend the range of features available in the Hangouts on Air service by default, Google has added the support of different plugins, which you can refine and customize:

• Cameraman. With this plugin, when a new authorized person appears online, you can present him on the stream to the others so that they are aware of his presence.
• Control Room. It lets you adjust the volume of your voice, mute the microphone or turn off the camera. In general, Control Room repeats the features described above that are available in the settings panel of the Google Hangouts on Air service.

All of the Hangouts on Air plugins are available in the pop-up panel on the left. Moreover, you can attach supplementary extensions by clicking the “More” button on that panel (in the center).

How to start the broadcasting procedure, after all the settings are ready-made?

When you have completed the configuration, the broadcasting session can be started by a single click on the “Start broadcast” button.

Everything that is left is to confirm the initiation of the streaming process by approving your decision in the Hangouts on Air confirmation box.

When the OK button is clicked, the “Live” indicator will show up, showing that the streaming presentation via Hangouts on Air has been started.

In this instruction, we described most of the principles and guidelines about how to use Hangouts on Air. Hangouts on Air is a perfect means for creating a highly professional and interesting content for any of the topics which you are keen on. You can stream either on the go or at your steady location: no matter what you choose, this splendid tool offers a massive range of solutions to make your broadcast informative and diverse.