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Google's revamped Hangouts messaging platform offers many considerable upgrades over Google Talk and the other messaging tools the company used to offer, but its lack of status indicators has been a thorn in the side of many users. Today, the company announced a new version of the app for Android phones that specifically addresses this issue. It is now possible to see when other users are immediately reachable on Hangouts via a green (available) or grey (not available) icon on their contact picture. Additionally, Google has made it easier to browse through your contacts when starting a hangout and easier to access invites to hangouts. The update is rolling out to the Play Store now and should be available for most users over the next few days. We expect that Google will update the iOS and desktop versions of Hangouts with similar features in the near future.