Were Hangouts On Air example buttons recently broken?

Question

Something seems to have changed recently (early Nov 2014) in the way the example buttons work to start a Hangout On Air (HOA). https://developers.google.com/+/hangouts/button

I have been using this example code from the link above as a starting point to make a "Create a Hangout On Air" button on my website.

<script src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js" async defer></script>
<div id="placeholder-div3"></div>
<script>
  gapi.hangout.render('placeholder-div3', {
    'render': 'createhangout',
    'hangout_type': 'onair',
    'initial_apps': [{'app_id' : '184219133185', 'start_data' : 'dQw4w9WgXcQ', 'app_type' : 'ROOM_APP' }],
    'widget_size': 175
   });
</script>

The initial_apps line is supposed to cause the HOA to automatically start the Youtube hangouts app (the app_id) with a particular video (the start_data). A couple weeks ago this was working. Now it is not. The initial_apps parameter seems to have no effect on the initial start of my HOA.

Another change I have noticed is that when I press the Create a Hangout button, I am now taken to a Google+ page where I enter a name for the hangout and guests, and then I have to push another button to actually start the HOA. This extra button push was not around previously.

I don't particularly care about the Youtube app starting, but I do care about my own app starting with my own start_data.

Has something changed recently? Why is this not working?

UPDATE: As of 16-Nov-2014, this bug seems to be fixed.

Answer 1

I figured out that the Hangouts On Air button works as expected only when you add an 'invites' attribute with at least two people in the list. Not zero, not one. Two or more.

I feel like this is indeed broken. There should be means of passing initial_apps data without requiring that invitees be submitted in the button.

Answer 2

Yeah I am facing the same problem.
My app also doesn't get loaded properly. Most of the times I get can't load app because the app is not communicating with the server.

Answer 3

I had this same problem and John L's solution worked for me. It seems Google fixed this bug and it's now working like before so you don't need to have at least two people in the invites attribute anymore.