Google voice and video v1.0.19

Today, we released the 1.0.19 update for the Google voice and video chat software. All current installations will begin an automatic update within the next few days. If you do not want to wait, you can visit http://www.google.com/chat/video and re-run the installer.

You can use your Gmail account to find out what version is currently installed. Simply go to the Gmail Settings page and look under the "Chat" tab. You will see the plugin version under the "Learn more" link, in small type.

Here's what's new in version 1.0.19:

• Improved efficiency of the video codec
• Improved call setup time in cases where DNS lookups are blocked
• Fixed issue where video could become corrupted during a call (green and upside down)
• Fixed issue where calls could fail to start on Windows machines with Pentium III processors
• Fixed accidental output to the debug console on Mac OS X (more info)
• Fixed several crashes that could occur when ending a call by closing the browser
• Fixed crash that could occur when the system time was set to a date before 1970
• Fixed several other crashes that could occur during calls
• Fixed issue where certain crashes would fail to be recorded properly

If you're on 1.0.19 and still having a problem, please take a look at the Google Chat Help Center, or report the issue on the Google Voice and Video Help Forum. As always, feel free to email me directly as well.

Google voice and video v1.0.16

Today, we released the 1.0.16 update for the Google voice and video chat software. All current installations will begin an automatic update within the next few days. If you do not want to wait, you can visit http://www.google.com/chat/video and re-run the installer.

You can use your Gmail account to find out what version is currently installed. Simply go to the Gmail Settings page and look under the "Chat" tab. You will see the plugin version under the "Learn more" link, in small type.

Here's what's new in version 1.0.16:

• Substantially enhanced noise reduction algorithm, which should noticeably reduce background noise during calls
• Video codec quality and efficiency improvements, including support for the pending H.264-SVC packetization standard
• Fixed problems with incorrect display of video streams with nonstandard aspect ratios
• Fixed problems on certain Macs where the camera could take several seconds to start up
• Fixed several crashes, plus additional diagnostics to detect deadlock situations

If you're on 1.0.16 and still having a problem, please take a look at the Google Chat Help Center, or report the issue on the Google Voice and Video Help Forum. As always, feel free to email me directly as well.

Hulk Hogan visits Google!

As part of our Authors @ Google series, Hulk Hogan stopped by Google Kirkland on Tuesday to discuss his new book, My Life Outside the Ring. Having watched Hulk Hogan while growing up (including, of all things, Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling), I had to check this out.

(Above, Hulk wishes me a Happy 35th Birthday...)

Some hints at what's in store for Google video chat...

From SFGate: Google Apps will get stronger video chat capabilities

Google Apps users can expect to see significant improvements in the suite's voice- and video-chat capabilities, as the company builds on Gmail's current features in that area.

Gmail's voice and video chats are now limited to one-to-one communications, but Google wants to broaden that capability to more than two participants and make it more robust all around for Apps.

"This [current Gmail capability] is the first step in a much broader set of features we hope to roll out over the next six to 12 months around video [and voice] chat capabilities," said Rishi Chandra, a Google Apps product manager. "It's a great opportunity for us to push that space along."

More Kirkland Grand Opening Coverage

From the Seattle P-I's Microsoft Blog(!): Google Invests in Kirkland with new campus

With about 600 Seattle-area employees, Google's influence in the region pales in comparison to Microsoft's. But the Internet giant, whose friendly image has won over millions and millions of worldwide Web users, may have the chance to start small – with Kirkland.

"Google is a very, very important part of our high-tech sector," [Kirkland mayor Jim Lauinger] said. "The high-tech sector is growing rapidly in Kirkland. It's taking a breather right now, but it's going to grow."

From Xconomy Seattle:

Google Kirkland Is Hiring, and Other Highlights from the Company’s Northwest Birthplace

Lastly, as I am wont to do, I asked [Google VP] Alan Eustace and [Google Kirkland site director] Scott Silver individually to boil down Google’s culture to one word. Neither took the bait. Eustace did say Google’s culture is quite uniform across its various centers worldwide. He used words like innovative, open to new ideas, community focused (versus competitive), happy, and high-energy, to describe the culture, but wouldn’t commit to just one of them.

Silver came closer to giving me one take-home message. “Engineers are in charge,” he said.

Other mentions:

• From Chris Pirillo's blog: Google Seattle
• From KMOX News: Google moves into new headquarters

Google Kirkland Tour

Today was the official grand opening of our new Kirkland campus. Here's a video of the event from TechFlash.com.

FedEx: Video Chat Commercial

Funny.

Google voice and video v1.0.15, for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Today, we released a specific 1.0.15 update for the Google voice and video chat software. This update is for Mac computers only, and is focused on resolving compatibility issues with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. All current Mac installations on OS 10.4 and 10.5 will begin an automatic update within the next few days.

However, if you have previously installed an older version of Google voice and video chat on OS 10.6, you will need to visit http://www.google.com/chat/video and download the new 1.0.15 version.

You can use your Gmail account to find out what version is currently installed. Simply go to the Gmail Settings page and look under the "Chat" tab. You will see the plugin version under the "Learn more" link, in small type.

The following Mac OS X 10.6 issues were fixed in version 1.0.15:

• Fixed problem where the Google Talk Plugin was not detected in Safari
• Fixed problem where the Google Talk Plugin would delay system sleep by 30 seconds
• Fixed problem where video would not be displayed in a video chat
• Fixed problem where registration for automatic upgrades did not work
• Fixed problem when uninstalling and reinstalling the same version

The issue with video not being displayed in a video chat is the result of a QuickTime bug in OS 10.6. We have implemented a workaround for this situation, but we have received reports that an extra step may be necessary for some users. If, after installing version 1.0.15, you continue to encounter this issue with video not being displayed, a single reboot of your Mac should fix the problem. We are working with Apple to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

If you are on 1.0.15 and experience problems, please report them on the Gmail voice and video chat forums. As always, feel free to email me directly as well.

Voice and video chat in Orkut!

Following on our recent launches of chat in Orkut and video chat in iGoogle, today we launched voice and video chat in Orkut. This makes Orkut the first social network with built-in voice and video chat, and significantly expands the reach of the Google video chat network.

Read more about this launch on the Orkut blog.

Using Zfone to secure Google video chats

One of our team members sent me a link indicating that Zfone could be used to secure Google voice and video chats with ZRTP (as shown in the screenshot above). I did some research, and it turns out that one of the Zfone developers managed to get this wired up a few months ago, as documented in an entry on the Zfone blog. For those not familiar with Zfone, Zfone is a small download that encrypts voice and video traffic so that it cannot be intercepted or tampered with, all with minimal setup. You can read more about Zfone/ZRTP on the Zfone FAQ.

I haven't had a chance to try this out yet, but it's pretty neat that the Zfone team was able to get this working without any support from us (yay standards!). If you want to give it a shot, you can download the Zfone Beta for Windows, Mac, and Linux from this site.

XMPP support on App Engine

Google Talkabout: XMPP support on App Engine

Thanks to some great work by Michael Davidson, AppEngine now supports the ability to host XMPP bots (written in either Java or Python). All the tricky work of setting up and deploying a bot is now handled for you.

To get started, head to the AppEngine site on Google Code and check out the API docs (Java | Python).

Google voice and video v1.0.13

Today, we released the 1.0.13 update for the Google voice and video chat software. All current installations will begin an automatic update within the next few days. If you do not want to wait, you can visit http://www.google.com/chat/video and re-run the installer.

You can use your Gmail account to find out what version is currently installed. Simply go to the Gmail Settings page and look under the "Chat" tab. You will see the plugin version under the "Learn more" link, in small type.

Here's what's new in version 1.0.13:

• Improved startup time for both voice and video calls.
• Detection and recovery for some situations that would cause the plugin to hang indefinitely, which could lead to messaging like "Detecting devices" in the settings page or "Add voice/video chat" in the roster or chat menu.
• Fixed connectivity problems caused by VMWare virtual network adapters.

If you're on 1.0.13 and still having a problem, please report it on the Gmail voice and video chat forums. As always, feel free to email me directly as well.

Google video chat tips, installment #1

From the Google Talk Blog: tips on using Google video chat, from one of the engineers on our team.

Did you know you could use the "pop-out" arrow on the top of a chat window to make a video chat bigger? This will separate the video chat into its own window that you can resize and move around as you like.

If you want to make the video chat as large as possible and block everything else out, simply use the Full Screen button in the top left corner of the video area. This will fill up your screen and make your conversation much more immersive. Based on the feedback you've given us, we have added the ability to mute your microphone while in full screen mode. To do this, simply hit the space bar!

Pidgin Adds Support for Google Voice and Video Chat

Slashdot | Pidgin Adds Google Talk Voice and Video Support

Just read that Pidgin 2.6.1 (on Linux) supports interoperability with Google video chat. Haven't had a chance to try it myself yet, but we'll be checking it out this week. Nice job Pidgin team!

Temporary solution for Gmail voice and video chat on Linux

If you're dying to try out Gmail voice and video chat on Linux right now, here's a temporary solution that may work for you while we finish the official Linux version. This clever hack allows the voice functionality of the Google Talk Plugin to work on Linux via the Wine shim layer.

Also, responding to some of the comments on the 1.0.10 post:

• We expect to support ALSA and PulseAudio.
• The packetization to be used for H.264/SVC will be that specified in http://www.ietf.org/id/draft-ietf-avt-rtp-svc-18.txt, which is currently on its way to becoming a RFC.

Cool testimonial for Gmail video chat

Saw this on YouTube today. It's great to see people having fun with our product.

Tweet your Gmail video chat experiences!

Searching Twitter for "Gmail video chat" or "Google video chat" has been a great way for us to see how people are using the service. Some great recent tweets:

"set up gmail video chat for my parents for while i'm away. they're so impressed that i can click a series of buttons and magically appear." (link)

"Google video chat is pretty awesome in terms of a free service. I am left wondering why Google is not promoting it more aggressively." (link)

"Just discovered Gmail's "Archive" feature, along with a whole slew of things I didn't know existed. Best video chat ever." (link)

Our team keeps an eye on these feeds, so if you include "Gmail video chat", "Google video chat", or #googlevideochat in your tweet, you can be sure we'll see it!

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/juberti

Gmail video chat on a plane!

Video Chatting at 35,000 Feet Works Pretty Darn Well - The Steve Rubel Lifestream

As an experiment I tried having a real-time video chat with my dad using Gmail and it worked relatively well. Video/sound cut in and out. Still, it was all quite manageable as you can see from the screen capture...

Gmail voice and video v1.0.10

Today, we released the 1.0.10 update for the Gmail voice and video chat software. All current installations will begin an automatic update within the next 24 hours. If you do not want to wait, you can visit http://mail.google.com/videochat and re-run the installer.

You can use your Gmail account to find out what version is currently installed. Simply go to the Gmail Settings page and look under the "Chat" tab. You will see the plugin version under the "Learn more" link, in small type.

Here's what's new in version 1.0.10:

General fixes:

• When uploading a log file to Google, we now display an incident ID that you can use when reporting an issue.
• Improved software auto-updates to now complete successfully even if Gmail is open, so upgrading to the latest version now happens more quickly. (We are still working on improving this on Windows Vista.)
• Improved call setup time when behind firewalls that only allow outgoing HTTP/HTTPS.
• Fixed issue where a device access dialog box would sometimes appear when starting a call.
• Fixed crash when using a software firewall that caused UDP socket creation to fail.
• Fixed crash that could occur in rare cases when a timing function returned the same value twice in a row.

Windows-specific fixes:

• Fixed an issue on Vista where software auto-updates could cause the browser to suddenly restart.
• Fixed an issue where having the 'Sony BlueTooth Video' camera device would cause the browser to crash.
• Fixed various issues with code signing.

Mac-specific fixes:

• Fixed an issue on 10.5.7 where the microphone would only work for the first call.
• Fixed several issues with the installer that could cause preflight_script errors or other problems.
• Fixed an issue where the built-in iSight camera could fail to be detected.
• Fixed an issue where audio and video would suddently freeze about 2 minutes into the call.
• Fixed an issue where the plugin could get into a loop and consume 100% CPU.

If you're on 1.0.10 and still having a problem, please report it on the Gmail voice and video chat forums. As always, feel free to email me directly as well.

Lastly, thanks to everyone who has written in asking about support for Linux. We've had to rewrite a key piece of technology, so this has taken some time. However, the results will be worth the wait.

Gmail voice and video v1.0.8

Today, we released the 1.0.8 update for the Gmail voice and video chat software. All current installations will begin an automatic update within the next 24 hours. If you do not want to wait, you can visit http://mail.google.com/videochat and re-run the installer.

You can use your Gmail account to find out what version is currently installed. Simply go to the Gmail Settings page and look under the "Chat" tab. You will see the plugin version under the "Learn more" link, in small type.

Here's what's new in version 1.0.8:

• Added support for the H.264/AVC video codec, in addition to the H.264/SVC codec that we typically use. This allows us to be compatible with video software that does not yet support SVC. When using H.264/AVC, Gmail video chat will send and expect in-band parameter sets, and send using a single-NAL RTP packetization.
• Made several improvements to voice quality, including additional tuning of our echo cancellation and automatic gain control algorithms.
• Fixed a problem where device settings would not be saved in some cases if no webcam was present.
• Fixed a problem where the browser plugin would sometimes not be detected by Gmail, even though it was installed.
• Fixed various crashes in the browser plugin.
• On Windows, fixed a problem where video chat would never work in certain network conditions. This was most often seen when using wireless broadband or other types of PPPoE connections.
• On Windows, fixed a problem where certain Sony Vaio cameras could cause the browser to crash when starting a video chat.
• On Windows, fixed a problem where certain Creative cameras could cause Chrome to display a "sad plugin" when starting a video chat.
• On Mac, fixed a problem where users of PostgreSQL (or any other app that uses a lot of shared memory) would see a "black box" instead of video.

If you're on 1.0.8 and still having a problem, please report it on the Gmail voice and video chat forums. As always, feel free to email me directly as well.

Watch YouTube videos right inside Gmail chat

Last week we launched another new feature we've been working on, media previews in Gmail chat. It's pretty cool. Frequently my friends will set YouTube links as their status messages, but from just a bare link, it's hard to tell whether or not the video is worth watching. However, with Gmail media previews, I can mouseover their name in my contact list to see the video title, and with a single click, I can play it right within Gmail.

It's also great for when friends send you a video link in chat. We parse the link and insert a thumbnail with the video title so you know exactly what your friend is trying to share with you (a rickroll, maybe?) Just click on the thumbnail and you can then watch the video right inside Gmail, without opening a new browser window or tab.

It's a fun feature, and makes sharing videos much more interesting. Check it out!

Gmail voice and video v1.0.5

Today we released the 1.0.5 update for the Gmail voice and video chat software. All current installations will begin an automatic update within the next 24 hours. If you do not want to wait, you can visit http://mail.google.com/videochat and re-run the installer.

You can use your Gmail account to find out what version is currently installed. Simply go to the Gmail Settings page and look under the "Chat" tab. You will see the plugin version under the "Learn more" link, in small type.

Here's what's new in version 1.0.5:

• On Windows, enabled sending and receiving video for CPUs without the SSE2 extensions (such as Athlon XP and Pentium III). Due to the lower processing power of these CPUs, the resolution of the sent video will be reduced. 
• On Mac, added support for the macam USB camera driver library, enabling hundreds of branded and generic webcams for mac users.  Some work better than others; depending on the camera, you may experience low performance or errors when using macam. For best results, we recommend having only a single macam device attached, and closing Gmail before plugging or unplugging macam devices.
• On Mac, changed automatic updates to no longer prompt the user to shut down the browser.
  
• Fixed several issues on both platforms where the plugin could crash during or while ending a call.
• Fixed an issue on certain Sony Vaio notebooks where the web browser would crash during call setup.
  
• Fixed an issue on Mac where the plugin would crash during call setup if the installed version of QuickTime was very old.
• Fixed an issue on Mac where old instances of the plugin would still appear in the Activity Monitor.

The fixes in this version should resolve the vast majority of the "my webcam doesn't work with Gmail voice and video" issues. If you're on 1.0.5 and still having a problem, please report it on the Gmail voice and video chat forums. As always, feel free to email me directly as well.