Google Hangouts gets p2p connectivity for better call quality

Google officially confirms that Hangouts will now use peer-to-peer (p2p)connections to offer improved call quality

Google officially confirms that Hangouts will now use peer-to-peer (p2p)connections to offer improved call quality (Google)

Google Hangouts is getting a new upgrade which uses peer-to-peer (p2p) connections, to ensure improvements in call quality. Google will reportedly be rolling out the functionality to all users this week.

"To improve call quality and speed, Hangouts will route audio and video over a peer-to-peer connection when possible," a Google spokesperson said in a statement to VentureBeat.

Put simply, P2P connections will allow Hangouts to route users' call directly instead of connecting the call through Google's servers. The search engine giant has also confirmed that Hangouts peer-to-peer functionality will be available on all platforms -- Android, iOS and Web browsers.

This should indeed be great news for users who use Google Hangouts for making calls, though at the risk of exposing their IP address. Skype recently got a much needed security update that hides a user's IP address by default. However, so far no one's figured out a way to recover someone's IP address from Hangouts. Hopefully, Google has taken this factor into consideration.