How do I invite a non Google+ member to a hangout?

Question

When I try to invite a non Google+ member to a hangout it appears to send an email invite but the email never arrives. I have tried about 5 different emails that I have access to to test it out but no email invites arrive. I have also tried this on both regular hangouts and a hangout party but the same results every time.

I am on hangout party now and what I'm doing is

1. Click Invite People
2. Type in the invitee's email address
3. Box pops up saying 'send email to name@domain.tld
4. I click it ( if I click anywhere else it dissapears but seems to have the same effect - which is that it puts a corresponding label in the box)
5. I click the green invite button.
6. It beeps and a blue "invitation posted" alert shows for a few seconds

... but no invitation arrives at the target email address.

The process is similar on a regular hangout ... again no email invitation at the target

Am I doing something wrong or is something broken?

NB. I know how to invite people manually to Google+ and I guess if they were already logged in members they'd get an onscreen notification but I don't want this ( unless I have no choice ... which may be the case I know but it's still a different issue. )

Answer 1

It seems the issue might have been that the invitations were not being sent to Google accounts. However that changed (Jason Lederman November 19, 2015) :

Users of Google Hangouts, Google’s video conferencing app, have long complained that only those with Gmail or Google+ accounts could use the service. Google answered those complaints today by introducing a “guest” mode, which will allow hosts to invite anyone to a Hangouts session. Hangouts organizers still need a Google account. But once they launch their Hangout, they can invite “external guests” (that's the term Google is using for anyone without a Google account) to join the conference via Google Calendar. The guest(s) will click on a link in the invitation, enter their name when prompted and can start chatting without creating accounts on Gmail or the newly-renovated Google+.

External guests can join on any web or mobile platform, and have to be approved (and can be kicked out at any time) by the organizer. The feature is still rolling out, so if you can’t access it yet, you’ll should be able to by the end of the week.