As an update to this morning’s post, Google has officially unwrapped free voice calls to any phone number in the U.S. and Canada right from within Gmail. International calls start at around two cents per minute, too.
People with Google Voice phone numbers can receive incoming calls right inside their Gmail by adding “Google Chat” as an available handset under the Google Voice settings menu. Likewise, outgoing calls from Google Voice subscribers will show that person’s phone number on recipients’ caller IDs.
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According to Google’s blog:
“We’re rolling out this feature to U.S. based Gmail users over the next few days, so you’ll be ready to get started once ‘Call Phones’ shows up in your chat list (you will need to install the voice and video plug-in if you haven’t already). If you’re not a U.S. based user—or if you’re using Google Apps for your school or business—then you won’t see it quite yet. We’re working on making this available more broadly—so stay tuned!”
More information available at: http://www.google.com/chat/voice/
More on Techland: Voice Calls From Within Gmail Looking More and More Likely