Can you send messages to people you do not know via Hangouts?

[kathayes]

I typed in the first name of someone in Hangouts and it brought up lots of other people with the same first name that I do not know. I'm guessing that it is pulling them from Google +.

Does this mean that I can contact any one of these people via Hangouts and start a video chat session with them? If so, I can see potential problems with that...

Thanks!

 

[funkylogik]

Nice question man. I havent tried it but i was a bit alarmed when some random who had added me to his circles (i hadnt added him back) video-called me.
I didnt care lol, we had fun playing with the dude but my 16y/o niece and 11y/o nephew use android pretty much freely and that kinda freaks me out

 

[kathayes]

Well, the reason I am concerned is because my 4-yr old goddaughter has a new Nexus 7 that I just setup so she can video chat via Hangouts with me. It is going to be a major problem if someone can just start a video chat session with her...

 

[UncleMike]

In the Hangouts app, go to Settings > select the account > Customize Invites. You can choose between Hangout with you and Invite only for each of your circles. I'm not sure what difference this actually makes, but it may help.