Google enables peer-to-peer support in Hangouts to improve call quality
Call quality and speed issues often make it difficult for users to fully embrace video and audio calling over the internet. To help solve this, Google has updated its video and audio communications service Hangouts by allowing peer to peer (P2P) connections for some users.
By incorporating this functionality into the back-end of its service the company expects call quality and the overall experience of its users to improve.
This new feature has already begun rolling out to Hangouts users, being first spotted on Android. Google will not be using P2P connections for all of the calls it handles through the service, and will only be using this feature for a part of them. Android is not the only platform that will be receiving this update. It will also be coming to Hangouts for iOS and the web.
A support document for Hangouts detailed the service’s new P2P connections by describing them as a new way which will allow the service a better and more efficient way of routing calls directly from user to user by bypassing Google’s own servers. By eliminating the middle man, the speed at which calls are connected should increase as well as the quality of the calls.
The user experience of Google Hangouts will be improved with this new update, but some security concerns might arise from the use of P2P connections. Skype, for instance, has been using P2P connections for years to increase call quality but the service shows the IP addresses of its users.
This made its users vulnerable to potential attacks since it was quite easy to obtain someone’s IP address by just knowing their Skype name. Thankfully, last month, Skype decided to hide its users IP addresses by default to make these kinds of attacks more difficult.
Google is most likely aware of the issues Skype has faced and has probably taken steps to prevent such attacks from happening to its users. The increased speed and call quality may increase the popularity and user base of Google Hangouts.
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