Google Hangout Keep Online
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Extension Delisted
This extension is no longer available in the official store. Delisted on 2025-09-16.
Auto-join Google Hangout when entering its URL & presses "I am not sleeping" time to time.
This script is for you if you want to set up an always-on camera+monitor in your office to keep in touch with your colleagues when your are out of the office.
Features:
1. Auto-joins a Google Hangout session when somebody refreshes the page by accident.
2. Automatically presses “I am not sleeping” time to time.
3. Allows you to have a permanent URL for your hangout, even if it is reloaded and its link is changed.
ATTENTION: requires English Google Hangout localization! Does not work for any other language except English. To turn on English, you should: 1) specify English as a default language in your Google account, 2) specify English as a first-priority language in your browser (for Chrome: Menu – Settings – Show advanced settings… – Languages, move English list item at the 1st place).
If you want to make a constant link for your hangout (bound to your browser), even after the hangout is reloaded and its Google link is changed, you may place the following PHP script somewhere to your web-server (e.g. to /google_hangout_keep_online.php) and specify its URL with “Change permalink” button. This script is a simple URL shortener which also allows to modify existed short URLs to keep them permanent.
<?php
// Program entry point.
function main()
{
ini_set('html_errors', false);
ini_set('display_errors', true);
$file = session_save_path() . "/google_hangout_keep_online.csv";
$f = @fopen($file, "a+");
if (!$f) {
throw new Exception("Cannot open $file for writing: " . last_error());
}
$f = @fopen($file, "r+");
if (!$f) {
throw new Exception("Cannot open $file for reading and writing: " . last_error());
}
flock($f, LOCK_EX);
$map = array();
foreach (explode("\n", stream_get_contents($f)) as $line) {
@list ($k, $v) = explode("=", $line);
if (!strlen($k) || !strlen($v)) continue;
$map[trim($k)] = trim($v);
}
$alias = trim(get_param('alias'));
if (strlen($alias) < 8) {
throw new Exception("Alias is too short.");
}
$url = get_param('url', null);
if ($url) {
$map[$alias] = $url;
fseek($f, 0, SEEK_SET);
ftruncate($f, 0);
foreach ($map as $k => $v) {
fwrite($f, "$k = $v\n");
}
flock($f, LOCK_UN);
fclose($f);
$url = '//'
. $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']
. preg_replace('/\?.*/s', '', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'])
. '?alias=' . urlencode($alias);
echo '<!DOCTYPE html>'
. '<a target="_blank" '
. 'style="white-space:nowrap; font-family:Arial; font-size:14px" '
. 'href="' . htmlspecialchars($url) . '">'
. 'Permanent link to this hangout'
. '</a>'
. '<!-- The database is in session directory, so refresh ourself to avoid PHP session expiration. -->'
. '<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.0.0/jquery.min.js"></script>'
. '<script type="text/javascript">setInterval(function() { $.get(location.href) }, 600000)</script>';
} else {
flock($f, LOCK_UN);
fclose($f);
if (!isset($map[$alias])) {
throw new Exception("Cannot find the alias '" . $alias . "' to redirect to.");
}
header("Location: " . $map[$alias]);
exit();
}
}
// Returns the last PHP error message.
function last_error()
{
$e = error_get_last();
if ($e) {
return $e['message'];
} else {
return null;
}
}
// Returns GET parameter.
function get_param($name, $default = false)
{
$value = @$_GET[$name];
if ($value === null) {
if ($default !== false) {
$value = $default;
} else {
throw new Exception("Parameter missing: $name");
}
}
return $value;
}
// Call the main program.
try {
main();
} catch (Exception $e) {
echo $e->getMessage();
}
Latest reviews
good
It is great.
does not work
hangouts was recently updated and this no longer seems to work! :(
Thanks a lot, it works fine!
This is the greatest thing on Hangout yet. It keeps it online and it ACTUALLY works! I hope it keeps working. Hangout is now WAY more useful.
It is great. I can finally stay on all night and not worry.
