Google Hangouts merges conversations and texts messages from the same sender

Since Google tacked on SMS messages to its Hangouts app, it has been tweaking the experience to keep convos on the up and up, and this week it's making a major change. In version 2.1 of the software, text messages and Hangout conversations from the same contact are neatly merged into a single thread, allowing you to send notes via either method. In order to keep track of things, the two sources are color-coded, and you can separate them any time you'd like. There's also a split in the contacts list for quick searching: folks you chat with on Hangouts and phone contacts that you keep to SMS. For easy access, there's a new home screen widget and improved quality for video calls. If your Android device hasn't alerted you to the update yet, head over to that second source link to snatch it up.