Google Hangouts is one of the most popular services out there, but on Linux, we don’t have an official desktop client. So, thanks to the community and the effort they have put in, we have one. So in this post, I’ll show you how to install a Google Hangouts desktop client on Ubuntu 20.04 and Debian 10.
As we know Google doesn’t have an official client for Linux HAngouts. However, to cover these shortcomings, we have YakYak that we have already talked about.
The development of YakYak is still going on and some weeks ago they released version 1.5.9 adding bug fixes and improvements in translations. So it is a very good moment to learn how to install it in two popular distributions like Debian and Ubuntu.
So, let us start.
Install YakYak a Google Hangouts desktop client for Linux
YakYak provides us with all the basic features to enjoy a complete Google Hangouts on Linux experience. Some of its features are:
- Send/receive chat messages
- Create/change conversations (rename, add people)
- Leave/delete a conversation
- Notifications (using native OS notifications)
- Drag-drop, copy-paste, or attach-button for image upload.
- Show inline images
- Offer alternative color schemes
And many more besides being available in many languages.
Unfortunately, it is not included in the official Debian or Ubuntu repositories. However, it is not so complicated to install it thanks to the compiled packages that they provide.
So, at the time of writing this post, the latest stable version of YakYak is 1.5.9. In the Release section of the Github profile, we have many packages to choose from. For Ubuntu 20.04 and Debian 10 choose the DEB.
Or open a terminal and run it:
wget -c https://github.com/yakyak/yakyak/releases/download/v1.5.9/yakyak-1.5.9-linux-amd64.deb
And then install the package using APT.
sudo apt install ./yakyak-1.5.9-linux-amd64.deb Reading package lists… Done Building dependency tree Reading state information… Done Note, selecting 'yakyak' instead of './yakyak-1.5.9-linux-amd64.deb' The following NEW packages will be installed: yakyak 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 23 not upgraded. Need to get 0 B/103 MB of archives. After this operation, 279 MB of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 /home/angelo/yakyak-1.5.9-linux-amd64.deb yakyak amd64 1.5.9 [103 MB] Selecting previously unselected package yakyak. (Reading database … 375109 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack …/yakyak-1.5.9-linux-amd64.deb … Unpacking yakyak (1.5.9) … Setting up yakyak (1.5.9) … Processing triggers for mime-support (3.62) … Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) … Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.31.4-3) … Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.23-4) …
Then, launch it from the main menu and log in
So, enjoy it.
Conclusion
Every day the community works wonders and brings really useful applications for everyone. Sine mebarog, it’s missing that big companies don’t publish official Linux clients for each of their services, and a proof of this is Google with Hangouts.
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