Legal
Privacy Policy
Last updated October 3, 2026
Who this covers
This policy covers the hangout browser extension and the hangout server at onhangout.com. hangout is open source, so you can read exactly what it does on GitHub.
You can point hangout at another server in its settings. If you or your friends use one, whoever runs it decides what happens to your data there.
On your device
The extension keeps these in Chrome's storage:
| What | Why | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Your name and color | Shown to the people in your hangouts | Synced |
| Your settings | The server address and how hangouts start | Synced |
| Saved hangouts | Their codes and the names you gave them | Synced |
| A random ID | Keeps your place when you reconnect | This device |
| A server password | Only if your server needs one | This device |
Synced items follow your Chrome profile through your Google account when Chrome sync is on. The rest never leaves this browser.
Watching in the browser without the extension, the watch page keeps your name and color in this browser's storage, for next time, and a random ID for each tab while it's open. Nothing of it leaves this browser but to the server, as below.
What the server receives
Only while you're in a hangout:
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your random ID, name and color | To show who's watching, and to keep your place when you reconnect |
| The hangout's code | To put you in the right hangout |
| The address of the video's page and the video's title | So your friends open the same video, and follow when it changes |
| Where the video plays from: its player's or its file's address | So friends without the extension can play it in the browser |
| Play, pause, position, speed and loading | To keep everyone in sync, and show who's behind |
| The server password, if one is set | Checked when you connect, never stored |
Everyone in a hangout sees the others' names, colors and playback, and the video's address and title. When you open the extension, it also asks the server how many people are in your saved hangouts.
Invite link previews
When you share an invite link, the app you share it in (Messages, WhatsApp, Slack and others) asks the server for a preview, and so can anyone who has the link. The preview shows the video's title and site, how many are watching, the first members' initials and colors, and where the video is. It never shows names.
For a YouTube video, the server loads the video's picture from YouTube (i.ytimg.com) to draw the preview. YouTube sees the server ask for that picture, not who is watching. The server contacts no other site.
Previews are drawn in memory when they are asked for and kept for a minute at most. The pictures from YouTube are kept for about an hour, so a shared link doesn't load them again.
How long it's kept
In memory only, never on disk or in a database. A hangout is deleted 60 seconds after its last member leaves, and a restart of the server ends them all. Link previews and their pictures are only in memory too, for as long as described above.
The server doesn't log requests, IP addresses, names or what you watch. Its logs only record starts, stops and errors.
On web pages
To sync a video, hangout runs on the pages you visit: it finds the video and shows its pill over it. It reads only the video: its state (playing or paused, position and speed) and, when you start a hangout or move on to another video, its title as the page names it for your browser's media controls. It doesn't read or send anything else on the page, your history, or anything you type.
When you start a hangout, it copies the invite link to your clipboard. It never reads your clipboard.
The pages at onhangout.com, like this one and the invite pages, set no cookies and use no analytics or trackers. The watch page's video players are their companies' own (see Watching in the browser).
Watching in the browser
Friends without the extension can watch a hangout on its watch page. For that, the host's extension shares where its video plays from with the hangout: the address of the video's player, or of the video file. Everyone in the hangout can see it, like the video's page.
The watch page plays YouTube, Vimeo and Twitch videos in those companies' own players, loaded from them: YouTube's from youtube-nocookie.com, Vimeo's asking it not to track you. They see that you watch, as on their sites, and their privacy policies apply. Other videos load straight from where the host's video plays, without telling that site which page you came from.
Hosting
The server at onhangout.com runs on Fly.io in Frankfurt, Germany. To deliver the connection, Fly.io handles your IP address like any network does; hangout itself doesn't store it.
What we never do
- Sell or share your data.
- Use it for ads, profiles or anything but syncing your videos.
- Track you across sites.
Your choices
- Leave a hangout, and within a minute the server has forgotten it.
- Remove hangout to delete everything it stored in your browser.
- Run your own server: hangout is open source.
Changes and contact
If this changes, this page and the date above change with it. Questions? Open an issue on GitHub.