When comparing Hangouts vs LastPass, the Slant community recommends Hangouts for most people. In the question“What are the best Android apps?” Hangouts is ranked 42nd while LastPass is ranked 56th. The most important reason people chose Hangouts is:
Start chatting on your phone, then on your computer, then on your tablet seamlessly!
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Save and sync your chats across multiple devices
Start chatting on your phone, then on your computer, then on your tablet seamlessly!
Pro No need to create a separate account if you use any other Google service
Hangouts uses Google account credentials. If you use any other Google service, then you already have an account set up.
Pro Group video support
If you have signed in your Google account, Hangouts allows making video calls with up to 10 people or one-on-one. There are business, education and government solutions that increase the participant count to for video calls to 15 as well as offers support for those accounts.
Additionally, you can switch between using either the front-facing or rear-facing camera on your phone or tablet.
Pro Free and cross-platform
Google offers all features of Hangouts completely free on iOS, Android and web with quick and reliable sync across all platforms. It's also tightly integrated in other Google services - it can be accessed from services such as Gmail, Google+, Chrome.
While the standard Hangouts offering is completely free, there are business, education and government solutions that increase the participant count to for video calls to 15 and offers support that may cost money.
Pro Chrome browser extension
Use the extension on any computer you can run Chrome browser to text from your computer or tablet!
Pro Excellent read receipts in group chat
It's possible to know what each and every participant of the group has read. Their icons are displayed below the last message.
Pro Can share animated GIFs
If you have gifs in your mobile phone, you can share them in the conversation and your partner will be able to see it animated in the chat.
Pro Google Voice integration
Google Voice is a service that enables making and receiving free phone calls within US. Google Voice forwards incoming calls to all connected devices and allows placing calls from any of the connected devices, but they will show as coming from the Google Voice number.
Hangouts completely integrates Google Voice, allowing you to place calls and receive texts and voicemail from all of your devices. The Hangouts app for Android also includes a needed dialer for making calls with the users Google Voice number.
Pro Free calls to US and Canada from anywhere in the world
Hangouts app for Android can be extended with an optional dialer for making calls. Most calls to US and Canada are free and international calls have cheap rates.
A Google Voice account will be needed in order have a number that allows these calls to be made.
Pro Advanced status sharing
Hangouts can inform about the status of other users including what device they are currently using, whether they are in the middle of a call and when were they last seen. This allows making sure that you're not disturbing someone when initiating a conversation. It's possible to granularly turn off status sharing.
Pro Video tools
Hangouts can add different effects and overlays to video calls that can be viewed on your device. Unfortunately, they can't be set from your phone.
Pro Seamless integration with OK Google for voice control and typing
Hangouts can be used completely hands free, even if the app is not open and the phone is locked: "OK Google, send a Hangouts message to Mary".
Pro Automatic cloud backup and cross-device sync
LastPass keeps an encrypted copy of all passwords locally as well as an encrypted copy on their servers. That way, passwords can be accessed locally while offline, or through their server while online from any machine.
Pro Multifactor authentication
LastPass offers multiple multifactor authentication options, including Google Authenticator, Grid Multifactor Authentication, Microsoft Authenticator App, Toopher Authentication, Duo Security Authentication, Transakt Authentication, Sesame Multifactor Authentication, Smart Card Authentication and Yubikey Multifactor Authentication.
Pro All encryption and decryption is done locally
All the encryption and decryption is done by the client (JS/App) so even LastPass doesn't have access to passwords.
Pro Seamless autofill and password generator via plugins for all popular browsers
All common browsers, including Opera, have plugins that allow automatically filling in forms and generating passwords. All form fill information syncs across all platforms, devices and browsers. Password generator can be adjusted to use or exclude certain characters and patterns.
Pro Automatic security monitoring
LastPass will check for re-used and unsafe passwords.
Pro Fingerprint verification
Some fingerprint readers, like TouchID on iOS, Samsung, Sony Xperia, or LG Mobile devices, can be set up to be used to access LastPass instead of a master password.
Pro Allows sharing passwords with one person or a group of people
LastPass allows sharing login data for a site with another user of LastPass without exposing the password. Great for allowing friends, family or coworkers access a site.
Pro Clean and intuitive UI
Since version 3.0 the LastPass interface is clean and easy to navigate on all platforms.
Pro Offers multiple export options
LastPass can dump the whole database as a .csv file or an encrypted file that can then be decrypted using LastPass Pocket as well as separately export Wi-Fi passwords and autofill information. Additional export options are available on a per-browser basis.
Pro Works with portable versions of Chrome and Firefox
Firefox 2+ on Windows, Mac & Linux as well as Chrome 4+ on Windows and Linux support a portable version of LastPass. Great for securely accessing LastPass Vault from public or untrusted computers.
Pro Works on Linux
LastPass alongside KeePassX are the only cloud-syncing password managers that work on Linux.
Pro Does not require a standalone app
While many password managers require a standalone app to be installed on the system, LastPass does not and can function via browser plugins.
Pro Military grade encryption
Lastpass has 256-bit AES encryption implemented in C++ and JavaScript with one-way salted hashes.
Pro Password one-click change
LastPass is able to change your password automagically.
Pro Yubikey support
LastPass offers multifactor authentication via Yubikey.
Pro Password security check up
Gives score based on password use and strength. Score is bad on other LastPass users and denotes where you fall in that group.
Pro Can create one-time passwords for accessing the Vault
LastPass allows creating passwords for accessing the LastPass Vault that can only be used once. Great for accessing the Vault in public or untrusted places.
Pro Vetted by Steve Gibson
Steve Gibson is a well established security researcher best know for his work with Apple and Atari systems as well as founding Gibson Research Corporation. He was given access to LastPass' source code and confirmed that it's safe to trust its security.
Pro Allows downloading an encrypted database backup that can only be decrypted with LastPass Pocket
LastPass Pocket is a standalone personal database decrypter. It's a portable executable, meaning it does not need to be installed, that is used to decrypt a local encrypted copy of the password database.
Pro Has native integration via app for Android
Fills in passwords in android apps without loading into LastPass directly.
Pro Works even with browsers that don't support plugins
Via a clever use of bookmarklets, LastPass works on browsers that don't inherently support bookmarklets, like Opera or Safari on iOS.
Pro Credit monitoring in US
LastPass can be set to notify if a user's credit report suddenly changes.
Pro Great free features
A large amount of features for the free version.
Pro Works with Windows applications with native app
Can record the steps and use it to login to native Windows apps.
Pro Full integration on iOS
Along with apple’s own key manager, LastPass is the only password manager on iOS with full, complete, subsystem access.
Fill passwords in any web browser.
Full passwords in most apps.
Cons
Con Transitioning to corporate orientation
Google is turning Hangouts in to a Slack competitor. It's unclear what the future of Hangouts is, but Google has said the consumer Hangouts we now have 'isn't going anywhere.'
Con Lack of end to end encryption
Communications are encrypted between client and Google servers but not from sending client to receiving client. This means that there is still a possibility for someone other than the receiver to read your message if they have access to internal Google servers. But it allows also lightweight chat history search, spam protection and other features.
Con Is owned by Google
Google is a cooperation that earns money from collecting data and breaching privacy.
Con Poor interface
The app tends to lag, the design can be confusing and considering that another app has to be installed that supplies another icon in the home screen in order to get a dialer for calls in Hangouts, overall it is very confusing and cluttered.
Con No rich text editing
On Android you can receive messages with bold or italic text. However, you cannot bold or italicize text on Android, only on iOS devices or via the web interface.
Con No way to moderate groups
If a member of a group chat room becomes disruptive, or there's some other need, there's no way in Hangouts to remove somebody from an existing chatroom. Similarly, if somebody is no longer active, there's no way to remove that user from the chat room to make slot for new active members.
Con Buggy video calls
Whether video calls work on your device is pure lottery, and there's nothing you can do to fix it.
Con Poor indication of who's online
There is no way to find out if a person in your contact's list is online or not in the Android app.
Con Poorly manages data
Doesn't cache images well either received or sent. Often users will see the sent images re-downloading, same for conversations.
Con API support was removed
This change closed options for integrations and connections between similar apps.
Con Not available on Windows Phones
There is no Hangouts app for the Windows Phone.
Con Doesn't support sending voice notes or video recordings
Currently there is no built in function that supports creating and sending voice notes or video recordings.
Con No customer support
Free product, you're on your own.
Con Won't send SMS/MMS anymore
They removed support for sms/mms. The same goes with integration to hangouts.
Con No SMS/MMS backup
They don't have options to backup sms to cloud.
Con SMS messages sent from the web app can't be sent outside North America
SMS messages sent from the web app can only be sent to number in America and Canada - sending to foreign numbers won't work, although you can still receive texts from anywhere.
Con Forced cloud backup
The is no way to opt-out of saving all of passwords on LastPass servers.
Con Has been hacked before
And becomes extra bad as you are forced to have everything at one central cloud place.
Con Recently doubled annual subscription rates
This applies even if you're a re-subscribing customer.
Con Somewhat poor customer service
LastPass maintains a support forum which they mostly ignore, labeling it "mostly peer-to-peer support" leaving only their e-mail ticket system to turn to.
Con Not free/libre
This application is proprietary, and thus cannot be modified, freely distributed, or trusted to be secure.
Con History of bad support for the company behind LastPass
You never know how much you will pay for it because LogMeIn did the same with Hamachi product. Support will be bad.
Con Rates are ridiculous for one user
They cut services and increased prices after they were purchased by LogMeIn.
Con Doesn't Encrypt URL
Lastpass doesn't encrypt the links stored in the vault, which can be accessed by hackers. Encryption ONLY applies to Password and Username.
Con Very bad UX for sharing passwords with other people (in free version)
When on lastpass.com you update the contents of a password file, it gets updated only on your side, not on the side of people it is shared with (and the UI does not tell you anything about this).
Also, when you want to share a password file with someone, they often have trouble accessing it (bugs in registration or acceptation of the shared document).
Con No longer free
Least expensive plan is $2/month. Formerly, the lowest paid tier allowed sharing with family members. Now there's a family plan for $4/month.
Con Poor Email Support
Email support is slow and just offers canned responses that are not anymore helpful then their documentation.
Con Forgets to ask "add new site?" on some websites
So you are forced to add a new site manually, which takes too long (relatively speaking).
Con Clutzy configuration to have multiple URLs for one credential
LP does not have a single place to view or edit all URLs related to a given credential. It has the main one then the rest on an "equivalent URL" configuration page.
Con Cross-browser/client single login breaks all-the-time!
Spend lots of time trying to make it work and another day it's just broken again. Very frustrating.
Con During login, application loads for a very long time
Con Domain & path matching is overly complex
I want simple "this domain (along with its subdomain) should match these". There are features for that - "Equivalent Domains" & "URL Rules". But still I can't get it working for certain items, so that I have to duplicate them.
Con When generating passwords, LastPass tends to put the wrong info in forms
For forms with both an email address and username, LastPass tends to mix up and overwrite information.
Con Randomly loses custom/extra fields/passwords
Sometimes they get wiped. Don't forget to copy them into the notes section in the first place, which seems to be generally stable.
Con Can't start on mobile
Apparently you have to start with their web interface and/or browser extension. Can't just start on mobile.
Con Autofill glitchy
Hit and miss with autofill either filling or being able to submit.
Con Inconsistent categories
They get shuffled around. E.g. once a top level "_None" category was introduced by itself. Still couldn't get the hang of it.
Con Doesn't always log out when idle
This issue is especially common with the mobile app.
Con Mobile apps are not intuitive
There are large differences between iOS and Android; as well as from the base desktop and cloud interfaces. Option A doesn’t correspond to the same thing across platforms. Functions have different names on different platforms, and under different settings.