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Add to SafariWhen comparing Google Hangouts vs Disa, the Slant community recommends Disa for most people. In the question“What are the best SMS apps for Android?” Disa is ranked 11th while Google Hangouts is ranked 17th.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Mobile support
Hangouts offers both an Android and iOS app so users can participate from nearly any mobile device in addition to his Desktop.
Pro Screen sharing
Any user can share his screen (or only a specific desktop or window) while still continuing an audio conversation.
Pro Free group video support
Hangouts works with up to 10 participants using video out of the box or up to 15 if you are a business, government or school. It determines who is the primary speaker at any given time, and the camera view automatically switches to that user.
Pro Useful for businesses
Hangouts can scale to become a videoconferencing solution for an entire company, since the software can run on nearly all platforms. In fact, Google itself uses Hangouts as its meeting room video conference software.
Pro Easy to start using
Hangouts is integrated with Gmail & Google+, does not require you to download desktop software, and all chats can take place directly in your browser, significantly reducing the barrier to entry for a new user.
Pro Completely free
Google offers all features of Hangouts completely free. There are business, education and government solutions that increase the participant count to for video calls to 15 and offers support.
Pro Cross platform
Hangouts work on Android, iOS, Chrome OS, web and as a Chrome extension.
Pro Live broadcasting and instant recording
With Google+ “Hangouts on Air”, you can broadcast any hangout to an unlimited audience via your Goolge+ Profile or simply a generic YouTube link. Moreover, any Hangout on Air (public or private) is automatically saved as YouTube video that you can keep for private reference or use in any way that you would normally share a YouTube video. This allows you to record conversations without additional obtrusive software.
Pro Google Voice integration
Allows for a fixed phone number, receiving and making calls. Calling US or Canada is free.
Pro Integrates with Google Maps for sharing locations
When chatting with people while trying to plan a meet up, the share map button can be extremely useful.
Pro Android app does both sms and hangouts messaging
Pro Does what it's supposed to do, without bloatware
Pro Open source plugin API
Everyone can develop their own plug-ins.
Pro Easy to use
Disa is very easy to use and has an open source API, so many new services will be added soon.
Pro Customizable notifications
Ability to set different notification sound/vibration/led based on the plugin.
Pro Unified conversations
Ability to merge conversations from the same contact on different services.
Pro Friendly developers and generally good G+ community
Fast, decent replies to questions, even if they've been asked before.
Pro Many requested features
The developer team does actually listen to the community and adds requested features.
Pro Pushbullet support
Disa works great with Pushbullet, allowing you to answer from your PC.
Pro Many languages
Help and support in many languages.
Pro Disa takes privacy much more serious
Currently, the Disa team knows less about you than the website you're currently visiting.
Pro Great material design
With color-changing design with custom colors for each service.
Cons
Con Poor video call quality
Only goes up to 720p30 + low bitrate.
Con Owned by Google
Con Lacking clients for older versions
Con High hardware usage
Con Not recommended for long sessions
Con Won't work on Windows 8-style UI
As Hangouts uses a browser plugin on the desktop and it doesn't work with Windows 8-style UI, it has to be used in desktop mode.
Con Doesn't support most messaging apps
Con Disa doesn't follow the Google Design Guidelines
Hamburger Menu/Navigation Drawer (Side Menu):
https://www.google.com/design/spec/patterns/navigation-drawer.html#navigation-drawer-contentNo Animations:
Empty Pages/States:
Maybe a Launch screen?:
Con Does not support Google SMS
Con Closed source
Disa is closed source, so the development speed is capped of their team, no external developer can help or add features that are not on the route of the team.
Con Doesn't support WhatsApp at the moment
Con Attaching pictures suddenly failed; no working solution.
Con Smaller development team leading somewhat slow implementation of requested features
Though the main development (framework, etc) is moving along fine, things like quick reply and sending multiple images at once should've been in quicker.
Con Constantly asks to re-authenticate WhatsApp
Con Doesn't let you customize notifications per conversation or contact
