Google Hangouts Notifications – No Notifications for Incoming Messages in Google Hangouts

google-chrome-extensionsgoogle-hangoutswindows

My company uses Google Hangouts chat as an IM client.

When there is a new incoming message in a Google Hangout multi-person chat that I have joined, neither the Windows taskbar icon for the Hangout chat window nor the Hangouts icon in the Windows notification area / "system tray" flash or otherwise indicate that there has been a new message.

The browser (Firefox) window in which I have Gmail running also shows incoming chat messages, but also does not flash upon receipt of a new message.

Consequently, I am frequently missing new messages, and unintentionally causing my colleagues to think that I am ignoring them!

I'm running Windows 8.1.

I do have the Down-arrow-options-menu > "Sounds for incoming messages" checkbox checked (from the Hangouts window with my list of contacts):

Sounds for incoming messages checkbox

As well as the Gear-icon > Notifications checkbox (from a Hangouts chat conversation window):

Notifications checkbox

My OS volume is not muted for any application for my active speakers (my headset — the only enabled sound output device on the system), and I can hear sounds from other applications normally:

Volume Mixer

I'm not sure at this point why no notification occurs on incoming messages. Is the OS preventing it? Is there some Hangouts setting that I have inadvertently disabled? Does Hangouts simply not have this functionality?

What can I do to get the Hangouts taskbar icon to flash, a sound to play, and/or otherwise notify me when there has been a new message in chat, such that I no longer miss incoming messages?

Best Answer

According to the Google support pages, you should check 4 items to be sure.

  • Ensure your notifications are enabled. (Which you already said you have checked).
  • Be sure you are NOT using Flashblock. If you are using Flashblock you need to adjust your settings.
    1. Open Firefox.
    2. From the Tools menu, select Add-ons and Extensions.
    3. Go to Flashblock and click Preferences on the right side.
    4. Enter mail.google.com under Whitelist for Gmail.
    5. Enter www.orkut.com under Whitelist for orkut.
    6. Click OK, and refresh your browser.
  • Be sure that your speakers are not muted or your volume is very low.
  • Be sure that you do not have any ad/popup blockers blocking the Hangouts page (Disable for plus.google.com pages.)
  • Ensure you have Flash and Shockwave enabled. If you go to http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/welcome you can verify that flash is installed and working. (fyi: On my system I had Shockwave installed, but it did not work correctly until I did a reinstall.)

Also there is a known limitation with Hangout in the Windows 8 style interface, however, if you are running Hangouts from Desktop mode this should not be a problem.

Beyond this as far as I have been able to determine this is a limitation of the browser based version of hangouts (GMail, Google+, etc.). Each time I tested this implementation the only time I got any noticeable notification was if I already had a chat started and in some way active. New chats and messages sent when Window was not the active window we not present.

However, I did try the same after installing the Google Apps version. Since this version acts like a normal installed messaging client it was able to pop the chat box up and able to generate active system alert sounds.

Until Google finds a better method for the browser based versions of hangouts you may wish to install the apps version by going to the Hangouts homepage and selecting the Computers option for installation.

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