Google recently changed the interface of the Hangouts extension for Chrome that makes it look a little more like its Android and iOS equivalents. It’s a nice update for some people, but others preferred the older style of floating windows. Here’s how to get the old interface back.
Patricia Mayo Tejedor and Sandoche Adittane decided to take Hangouts into their own hands by hosting the old extension on GitHub. It requires a little more work to install but it’s pretty simple. First you need to download their repository and unzip it in a folder. Then in Chrome:
- Go to chrome://extensions
- Enable “Developer Mode”
- Click the “Load unpacked extension…” button and navigate to the folder where you saved the repository.
That’s it. You need to disable the official Hangouts extension, and the old extension will always live in that folder so don’t delete or move it for as long as you want it. Head over to GitHub for an even more thorough walkthrough so you can get your floating Hangout windows back.
source – Lifehacker