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Hangouts for Android starts scoring video chats over cellular on AT&T

Attention folks on AT&T: you can soon video chat on Hangouts over a cellular connection now that the feature is being green-lit by the carrier and the Android app has scored an update. As discovered shortly after the release of the standalone Hangouts app, the perk could be accessed solely via WiFi -- an inconvenience shared by other chat apps on AT&T's devices. While Ma Bell originally claimed the issue could only be remedied by the OS and manufacturers, it soon changed its melody and announced its intention to activate video chat over 3G / 4G for all pre-loaded apps within the year. Don't be surprised if the function still doesn't work after you've installed Hangouts' latest update, however: the carrier's still not done flipping the switch across the board, but it expects to complete the rollout by year's end. Head past the break to read a statement from AT&T on the matter.

This makes sense given what we've shared before: Throughout the second half of this year, we plan to enable pre-loaded video chat apps over cellular for all our customers, regardless of data plan or device; that work is underway and expected to be complete by year end.