Google has rolled out a new update for the Hangouts app, allowing users to call-in to Hangouts Meet via their phone while simultaneously sitting in front of the computer in a video call.

Users can either call directly or let the Hangout Meet call their device. However, the users who manually dial the call will need to enter the meeting PIN on their phone. This service is available to all the G suite customers.

Users on G Suite’s rapid release domains will receive the update starting January 29, 2020, and those on scheduled release domains will start seeing these changes on February 12, 2020.

According to Google, this feature will ensure that the users will have a consistent and reliable audio supply even when the network connection is poor or some hardware malfunction.

“You can use your phone for audio on Hangouts Meet calls to ensure you have consistent and reliable audio quality, even if your network connection is poor or if your computer’s microphone and speaker aren’t working. You’ll still be able to share and see video and presentations in the meeting,” the company announced.

This feature will be on by default if the user has enabled the dial-in functionality on the phone. The same can be disabled at Apps > G Suite > Settings for Google Hangouts > Meet settings, where the user will have to disable the following setting: Provide a phone number and PIN for each video meeting.

Google Hangout's now allows users to connect via phone call

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Where is the feature available?

Users from the below-mentioned countries can only dial-in to Hangouts, while the dial-out feature is currently only available to users in US and Canada. This means that users in the following countries can only dial into a Hangouts conversation (if permitted by the admin) and not have Meet call their phone.