Hangouts On Air from Google+ just got a little bit more useful. This platform for live streaming video chats will now feature an interactive Q&A feature, Google product manager Amit Fulay announced on Google+ today.
Hangouts On Air is a tool hosted by Google+ that lets you broadcast a group video call over the internet. Previously, the tool only enabled you to live stream your conversations with onscreen participants, and you weren’t able to interact with the viewers you couldn’t see. Now with Live Q&A for Hangouts On Air you can interact with up to a million viewers.
What Hosts Can Do With Live Q&A for Hangouts On Air
Live Q&A will help Hangouts On Air hosts better engage their viewers. The new feature will let them:
- Solicit questions from up to a million concurrent viewers
- Select and answer questions live
- Timestamp the YouTube recording by marking questions as you answer them
This could be useful for brands, though leaders, bloggers, and more looking to host campaigns and programs that rely on user-generated content (namely, questions!).
What Viewers Can Do With Live Q&A for Hangouts On Air
Viewers will be able to ask their host questions in real-time. The new feature will let viewers:
- Type questions to their host and ask them live
- Replay the Q&A after the broadcast is over
- Up-vote other viewers’ questions (or their own)
Hopefully, if you send questions in during a Live Q&A yours will be answered so you can feel closer to your host!
Over the next few days Google+ will roll out the full version of Live Q&A for desktop and a view-only version for Android.
While you wait, you can check out Live Q&A in-action by watching any of these broadcasts:
What will you do with Live Q&A on Google+ Hangouts On Air?
Will the commenters have to have a Google plus account? I plan to use these hangouts to host virtual parties for my direct sales business. I don’t want to have to ask guests to get a Google plus account to ask questions.
did you ever get a response to your question? i’m curious about this as well.