Why don't I have Hangouts in my Gmail web client?

Factual Questions
1

Hi folks,

I use Gmail as my personal email, and most of the time I access it via the web client at Gmail.com.

I’ve seen other people using it, and they get a Hangouts “panel” (for want of a better word) in the bottom left corner of the screen, listing their Google+ contacts and any chat sessions they have ongoing. I also have a secondary Google account (not linked to the main one in any way) which I use for stuff I don’t want to pollute my main account with (one-off registrations for things I’ll never look at again, that kind of thing) - and that account also has the Hangouts “panel” - so it’s not computer related. When I access my main Gmail account on other computers, the Hangout “panel” is also missing, so it’s clearly account-based rather than an issue with my actual computer.

For clarity, I’ve uploaded a screenshot - please forgive the butchering I’ve given it in Photoshop to remove personal details… the space in the bottom left corner of the screen is just blank in the web client, rahter than having the Hangouts “panel” as it should.

I’m accessing the Gmail web client in Chrome - the issue happens both on my desktop, a Mac Mini running Yosemite, and on my work PC, running Windows 7.

Anyone know of any issues that might be causing this? I can’t find anything very relevant online.

2

Here are instructions on how to turn Chat on and off in Gmail. It also has a link at the page bottom to another page on how to sign in and out of Hangouts. One of these might have information relevant to your issue.

3

Thank you, jimbuff314. I’ve managed to fix it - turns out “chat” was set to off for some reason.