When Google replaced the old Google Talk chat system embedded in Gmail with the new Hangouts, some things got better... but other got a lot worse. Most users were particularly annoyed by the fact that you lost the ability to manage how you wanted your contacts and chats to show. And now finally seems to be doing something about it, allowing us to select which users we want to see.
If you're annoyed to have to scroll thorough the contact list to find the people you frequently talk to when they're offline, now you'll be pleased to know that you can "pin to top" your favorite contacts no matter their online status. Also useful, you can hide those contacts that may be online but you seldom talk to.
This doesn't mean Gmail's Hangouts are now perfect, but it's a nice improvement that will help user manage their contact lists better. I just think they should have gone a little further and used this same system on the hangouts pane as well (instead of simply the contacts tab). That way, we would be able to better manage the hangouts conversation list, pinning some hangouts to the top, and easily hiding the one we don't want to see in there (something that now requires you to open the hangout, go to its settings, and delete or archive).
This new hide/pin system would be a lot more helpful and easier to use. Maybe someone at Google will think of it as well for their next update...
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