Hangouts 5.0 arrives with lots of fixes

A lucky few may have noticed a new update for Hangouts download to their devices this week. This version, number 5.0 up from version 4.2, contains a selection of important fixes for Google’s messaging app.

There aren’t any major interface changes or new features included in the latest app version, but there appear to be a couple of little tweaks to the app’s animations in places and a new splash screen that appears when the app opens up. MMS messages can now also be composed if you’re using Google Voice in Hangouts, but the 3×3 widget seems to have been disabled.

As for fixes, previously broken animated GIFs are now properly supported, although they still only play in conversation view mode. An irritating random scrolling effect has been fixed, as has an issue where messages would occasionally not appear until re-entering the conversation. The snack-bar pop-up has been disabled, so the little ‘signed in as’ notification no longer appears unless you have multiple accounts setup to use Hangouts.

If the app hasn’t automatically updated on your device yet, you can download the signed file to install yourself from APK Mirror by clicking the button below.