Hangout on Air
Hangout on Air (HOA) is a feature much like regular Hangouts that allow you to broadcast in “watch only” mode to a public audience without requiring viewers to participate in a Hangout. You start a Hangout on Air in the same manner you start a regular Hangout, but a few differences exist, including:
- HOAs start “off air” and only the HOA owner can choose to start the public broadcast.
- An “embed” link will be available even when the HOA is off air so that you can share to your Circles and contacts before the show goes live.
- As the account that initiates the HOA, you are the only person able to invite attendees even while the Hangout is in progress.
- HOAs do not have the ability to play YouTube videos.
- As the HOA owner you are the only person that can stop the broadcast.
- When a HOA is finished, the YouTube account connected to the HOA owners account is where the recorded video will appear. The video is in private mode until you visit YouTube and allow the video to be public.
To link your existing YouTube account to Google+, visit Support.Google.com and search for “linking my YouTube account to a Google account” and follow the instructions and conversion path. You must use the same email address for both Google+ and YouTube to make this work.