If you’re a Gmail user, you’re probably familiar with Hangouts, the chat and video service that’s built into the email platform. You might also know that you can use Hangouts to send and receive text messages from your computer.

All you need is the Hangouts app, which you can download for free from the App Store or Google Play. The app is compatible with both Android and iOS devices, as well as computers running Windows or MacOS.

Once you have the Hangouts app installed, open it and sign in with the same Google account you use for Gmail. You’ll see …