Google announced a major upgrade to its Hangouts real-time communication service, rolling out a new stand-alone Hangouts app for the web, Android and iOS that will be available later Wednesday. The app was introduced by Vic Gundotra, senior VP of engineering, at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. He emphasized Google’s intention of “getting gadgets out of the way,” and giving people the ability to contact their friends, colleagues and loved ones on any platform, regardless of operating system. “Why should OSes matter?,” asked Gundotra. “People matter.” He emphasized that the new Hangouts app will focus on conversations, rather than contacts. He added that contacts are still available with a single tap, and they’ll be ranked by Google according to how often you talk to or chat with those contacts. The conversations can include combinations of text, photos and video.