Google Hangouts gets its own dedicated web app

Google has introduced a new web app for its Hangouts cross-device messaging app, a full two years after the app first launched to the world.

It’s live now at a convenient URL: hangouts.google.com/. (Hat tip to Droid Life for covering the new site today after Googler Jordanna Chord wrote a Google+ post introducing the new feature.)

The app allows users to make voice and video calls for free.

This week’s launch comes a few months after Facebook introduced a web version of its Messenger app that was broken directly out of Facebook.

The app was originally conceived as a part of Google+, but Google has been gradually breaking up that social network in the past few months, beginning with the stand-alone Google Photos app. Now that Hangouts has broken out of Gmail, it has its own unique web presence.