Gmail now lets you pin Hangouts contacts and easily see who is online

Google today updated Gmail with a new tab in the built-in Hangouts service that adds two new features. Pinning contacts and an easier view for online contacts will both be rolling out “over the next few days.”

You can now pin your favorite contacts to the top of your contact list. After that, friends who are online are shown in the new tab, followed by those who are offline (you can still message your offline friends and they’ll get it when they check their computer, phone, or tablet).

In short, it’s now much easier to keep track of your chat contacts right from Gmail. Google says these additions were made in direct response to users asking for them.

See also – Google brings mouse and trackpad handwriting support to Gmail in over 50 languages and Docs in over 20 languages and Google now lets you download a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data

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