Google API: show online contacts for Google Talk/Chat and Google Hangout

Question

I might have overlooked this, but I'd like to implement Google Talk and Google Hangout on my site and I'm looking for some kind of (official, preferably PHP) API call that retrieves the online/offline contacts of a Google+ user. (similar to the list of online contacts next to Gmail)

Is this API functionality available and is it possible to provide the user with the option to select contact(s) to start a Google Hangout with?

Answer 1

To start, you're likely going to need to leverage a few different APIs. Since I cannot add a comment to ask questions, here's a recommended reading list based on my recent work with the Plus & Hangouts APIs:

1. Google Plus - https://developers.google.com/+/api/latest/people/list - Collect a list of people in your circles. This will not tell you who's online or offline. May be optional (see #2). Unfortunately, this call is not available yet in the PHP Client Library, so I created one for my personal project and am waiting on some vetting to submit it back to the Google project. If you're interested, I'd be happy to share.

2. Google Talk - https://developers.google.com/talk/ - Use that query the Talk service to see who's online and/or offline.

3. Starting a Hangout - Seems this discussion @ the developer group is similar to your question and can best point you in a good starting direction. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/google-plus-developers/r_f7iweZ7c8

Hope that helps & curious to hear how it goes!