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Blackboard Collaborate vs Google Hangouts [EOL] comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 27, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Blackboard Collaborate
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
27th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Google Hangouts [EOL]
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Virtual Meetings category, the mindshare of Blackboard Collaborate is 0.9%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Hangouts [EOL] is 0.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Meetings Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Google Hangouts0.6%
Blackboard Collaborate0.9%
Other98.5%
Virtual Meetings
 

Featured Reviews

YN
Useful in webinars, meetings and online classrooms
One of the features that people enjoy is the whiteboard, providing opportunities for academics to present content and for students to contribute. The platform also allows for the creating of different rooms, enabling large classes to break into smaller groups for discussions. Students can then return to the main classroom to share their opinions. It integrates with LMS.
ANIS QURESHI - PeerSpot reviewer
Quick and seamless meeting setup offers a smooth experience
I sometimes use Google Hangouts for my personal meetings only I find that Google Hangouts is very quick and easy to create a meeting, which is its biggest benefit. It doesn't have a 40-minute limitation unlike Zoom. It is easy to set up as well, taking just a couple of minutes. So far, I think…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"One of the features that people enjoy is the whiteboard, providing opportunities for academics to present content and for students to contribute. The platform also allows for the creating of different rooms, enabling large classes to break into smaller groups for discussions. Students can then return to the main classroom to share their opinions. It integrates with LMS."
"The solution allows me to connect and collaborate with my classes."
"Document loading and annotation."
"The video call feature is the most valuable."
"The most valuable feature has been the ability to present presentations during meetings."
"The initial setup process is straightforward."
"The best features of Google Hangouts include the option with Gemini to record and create call transcriptions and provide a meeting summary."
"Google Hangouts is user-friendly. It supports low internet bandwidth."
"The most valuable features are the chat features and the video conferencing features that enable more than two or three people to be connected at a time."
"The interface is simple and not complex."
"Very good voice and video calling options."
 

Cons

"If there were maybe more tutorials outside of what I'm aware the university is suggesting, I would take more tutorials on effective ways to deliver content. I come from the industry and content was always needed when people that were observing were smart and involved and decision-makers instead of so passively just trying to pass the course. In my imagination, the tutorials would be a tool where the learners themselves can have much more hands-on learning during a Collaborate session."
"We faced outages when the user limit went over a certain number."
"The system can overload when too many try logging in."
"Support could be a bit faster."
"Google Hangouts should add a feature to show how someone connects, such as via a laptop or phone. If you know if someone is using a laptop you can ask them to share their screen."
"You only get 60 minutes of video conferencing."
"One improvement could be integration with Google Calendar to help find available timeslots when scheduling meetings with many participants."
"Collaboration in Google Hangouts has room for improvement compared to Microsoft Teams. On Microsoft Teams, you can share a document directly and work on that document all at once, in real-time, with other team members, which isn't the case with Google Hangouts."
"I would like to see more focus on features for interacting with the participants in a group chat, such as screen sharing."
"We don’t have any complaints."
"There should be more space for multiple users at a time so that multiple people can connect, can share, and even transfer control to another colleague, employer, student, etc."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"For individual use, there's no license requirement as such. For storage or some other purposes, if I go beyond 15 GB, then I need to buy something."
"There is no license cost."
"There is a need to make certain payments towards the licensing costs attached to the product and some other tools that are included in the suite offered by Google. Google Hangouts alone as a product is available for free."
"I use the free version of the solution."
"The screen-sharing feature is the most valuable feature."
"This solution is available for free with the opening of a Google account."
"I believe my company has a yearly license for Google Hangouts, but I'm not sure because this is a corporate account, so I don't have the details."
"We are using the free version of Google Hangouts."
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Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Blackboard Collaborate?
One of the features that people enjoy is the whiteboard, providing opportunities for academics to present content and for students to contribute. The platform also allows for the creating of differ...
What needs improvement with Blackboard Collaborate?
We faced outages when the user limit went over a certain number.
What is your primary use case for Blackboard Collaborate?
We use the solution in web seminars, online classrooms, and meetings.
What do you like most about Google Hangouts?
It's integration with Google is the valuable feature.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Hangouts?
Google Hangouts comes as a package, so it's difficult to say or comment on the price of this particular product.
What needs improvement with Google Hangouts?
Sometimes when we have a call and need to share audio or play a video, we find it challenging to switch from sharing the complete desktop to only a particular Chrome tab, as it doesn't support audi...
 

Also Known As

Blackboard Mobile
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Derby Online, Universty of Warwick, University of Liverpool, City College Norwich, Northumberland College, Mid-Kent College, Watson Pharmaceutials, Capella University, Shore Tel Sky, Lincoln PD, City of Somerville MA, Somerset County Council
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Blackboard Collaborate vs. Google Hangouts [EOL] and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
866,286 professionals have used our research since 2012.