Google has started rolling out a VoIP service that allows U.S. callers to make free calls within the U.S. and to Canada for free (for a limited time) through Gmail. The service also allows you to make cheap international calls. If you have a Google voice number, those digits will be displayed as your caller ID. Here’s a clip from the official Google 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!
I’m a Gmail, Google Voice, and VoIP junkie that’s always looking for cheaper and more convenient ways to stay in touch with friends, particularly overseas. I’m thrilled that this features has been implemented into Gmail and will be experimenting with it over the next month. If it works the way I think it will then it should be a valuable part of my VoIP arsenal.
Any of you interested in Gmail’s new VoIP features?
That seems like a really cool idea. forget Skype for the moment, lol.
Maybe I did something wrong (probably) but I couldn't get this to work for free. I downloaded everything and it wanted to charge me $.10 for all calls.
@bsukenyan It shouldn't cost $.10 for domestic calls anyway. That sounds weird.
I just made a call with it, no problem. I asked the person to call my GV number back though and my iphone just rang and not the GVOICE client. Weird.