Hangout on Air, sometimes referred to as HOAs, are a type of Hangout (free 10 person video chat) in Google+ that allows the Hangout to be broadcast live and recorded to YouTube.

What does this mean exactly? In a 'normal' Google+ Hangout or Hangout with Extras (lets you have group access within the Hangout to use Google Docs) only the people inside the Hangout have the ability to see the Hangout. Anyone not participating in the Hangout cannot view the video stream in a 'view only' mode. HOAs give the user with the ability (I have HOA) to 'broadcast' live and allow people not in the Hangout to watch – similar to a Livestream.com, UStream.tv, or YouTube Live (http://www.youtube.com/live) broadcast.

I wanted to write up how HOAs work from my point of view on the 'inside' since I have HOA ability. It seems people get confused on how to watch to join HOAs because they don't function like other Hangouts.

tl;dr — HOA lets people not in a Hangout view the video from the outside in a 'watch only' mode live as it's happening.

What happens during a HOA is this:

1) I start a HOA and invite people or circles in. Because I am responsible for the contents, I alone have the ability to invite people in (in a normal Hangout anyone IN a Hangout can invite others in at their discretion).

2) As soon as I start a HOA, it begins to record to my YouTube channel associated with my Google+ account. These videos are marked private and are not available to the public to view until I go in and flip it to public. Videos are not immediately available for viewing, YouTube takes a bit to render/compress the video on their end. The videos are generally available for download by me about an hour or so after I close the HOA (depending on how long the HOA was). I always download, edit, and re-upload the HOA videos as my preference.

2a) EDIT: When I start or you join a HOA, you have to agree to a TOS (every time) that says among other things you won't distribute materials you don't own.

3) I have the 'button' to flip the HOA to a live broadcast. Once I do that, the Hangout appears in my Google+ stream as public. Now anyone can watch it (even if you are not logged into Google+). Sharing this public post will put the live video player in the shared post as well, meaning that if you share it, people can click PLAY right on your stream and watch the video as well.

4) There is no way for a live chat or a comment stream to occur between the people IN the HOA and the people watching the HOA. The best I have been able to come up with is using the comments under the original HOA player as a chat stream. Trust me, I would LOVE to see Google put some sort of chat instance like UStream.tv has – maybe hooked into GChat or something. Right now it doesn't exist, so I use what I have!

5) HOAs are live from when I push it live until the Hangout is closed. I have no ability to stop broadcasting while still leaving the Hangout running. So if you are ever in a HOA just remember that you are broadcasting live until the very end!!

6) EDIT: If I choose never to push the broadcast live, I will still get a recording in YouTube.

Disclaimer:

The HOA feature is deployed on an extremely limited basis by Google. From everything that I've read (or haven't read) there is no definitive word on if Google will be granting the ability to do this to more users, or the majority of users in Google+.

I have heard a lot of complaints about Google not giving everyone you certain people access to HOA. I know it's a cool ability, and I am thankful as hell that I have it, and try to use it for the good of the community within Google+ and to bring a greater awareness about Google+ to those outside the platform.

Here's the thing, I don't have any special influence or super powers when it comes to 1) helping others get access to HOA or 2) knowing what Google plans on doing with the ability. I don't know what their criteria is for picking someone to give HOA to. I don't know if Google is giving out more HOA or even who (outside of the people I'm friends with) has HOA. I know about ten thousand people that can give very strong reasons for getting the ability themselves. I know it seems unfair that Google doesn't give more people access. My feeling (nothing official from Google) is that it's a technical 'thing' and not a political one that more people don't have the ability.

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