In response to the coronavirus pandemic, however (and likely to compete with video conferencing giant Zoom), Google recently made Meet available free to consumers as well, just like Hangouts. Google Meet is Google's video conferencing service targeted at businesses. Zoom: Which video-chat app is better during quarantine?
But this may be less of an issue with a smaller group. One downside to Google Hangouts is that the view shifts to the person who is talking, so you can't see everyone at once the way you can with a tiled or gallery view on Meet. Then enter your contact's name or email, and hit the camera icon to start a video call. In the app, open it up and tap the + button. Select a person from the Hangouts list, or search for their name or email address, and click it. To start a call, open or find it on the left sidebar in Gmail. Use Google Hangouts through your Gmail account, its app for iOS or Android, your web browser or its Chrome extension. You'll need a Google account to start a call on Hangouts, but you can join one without it. You can invite up to 150 people to a Google Hangouts chat, but only up to 10 can join a video call at once. It's targeted at consumers for casual video chats with friends and family.
Google Hangouts is the tech giant's app for free video and voice calls as well as group messaging and file sharing.