Google Gmail Voice Service Means You Can Make and Receive Phone Calls From Gmail

For those who still do not have a Gmail account yet, now there is one more reason to get one. On August 25, 2010, Google has released to U.S. members a new feature in Gmail that lets users make and receive phone calls from Gmail. For lack of a better term, we'll call it the Gmail Voice-calling service. See Google's Official blog of this release and on Google Voice Blog.

Even way back in 2008, Gmail users can do video chat within Gmail (provided they download a plugin).^[ref] However, it still required that both parties be logged into Gmail at their computers.

Now, with this new release of Gmail Voice-calling service, you can call any land line telephone number or cell phone number from within Gmail (provided that you download and install a plugin on your computer).

For those of you who have been using Gmail, you probably have noticed the "call phone" feature next to the Gmail chat. Apparently many of you did, because Google had tweeted that over 1 million of such calls had been made within the first 24 hours of release.^[ref]

The feature enables you to type in any phone number (such as a land line or a cell phone number). A phone call is placed to that telephone number. When the other party picks up their phone, you talk as in any phone call. Your computer's microphone will picks up your voice. And you hear the other party on your computer speaker. (The plugin that you've installed is the software that enables your browser to access your computer's microphone.)

Although the quality of computer's built-in microphone or speaker is quite decent; for even better quality, many people still prefers to use a headset with mic that connects to the computer's USB port.

If it is not working properly, check your Gmail settings. Currently the call phone feature only works within the United States and when the Gmail interface language is set to "English (US)". Within Gmail's settings under "chat" tab, you will find options where you can specific which microphone device and speaker on your computer that you want to use. Also make sure that you have set the option that says "Enable outbound calling with Google Voice".

When calling the other party, what will be the incoming caller id number that they will see? If you have a Google Voice telephone number, then it would be your Google Voice number.

What is a Google Voice telephone number? It is your own personal telephone number. Initially, you need an invitation in order to sign up for Google Voice. But in mid 2010, any U.S. resident can sign up without any invitation. You still need a Google account though.

You can choose a telephone number from among the various telephone area codes within the United States. Google will give you a selection of telephone numbers to choose from. Sign up at google.com/voice to pick a "good number" before someone else takes it. Good number as in one that also spells out a word, or that is easy to remember, or has your favorite digits in it, or whatever. Once you pick a number, this number is not tied to any carrier or phone. It will be your number even if you change your cell phone provider or if you move.

It is free to sign up for a telephone number. Calls to U.S. and Canada is free for now and at least until the end of 2010. Calls to other countries incurs a low per minute charge as listed here.

With Google Voice, you don't have to make outgoing phone calls with your computer or in Gmail. You can opt to add a phone to Google Voice settings and use that phone to talk instead of talking through your computer. Just pick up that phone and call your own Google voice number, Google Voice will know that you are calling yourself. So it will ask for your PIN code which you have to provide to access your voicemail. After that it will give you the option to place an outgoing call. If you enter yes, it will ask to enter the telephone number that you want to call. The party answering will see the caller ID as your Google Voice number.

If you had opted on add your cell phone to Google Voice, then this features enables you to call people using your cell phone without revealing your cell phone number. The receiver sees your Google number instead.

Other parties can call your Google Voice telephone number. But where is your phone? Where will it ring? How do I pick up the phone call? That all depends on your Google Voice settings. You can set it to ring your cell phone. You can set it to ring your home land line. You can set it to ring in your Gmail application. Or you can set it to ring all of them. Or you can set it to ring none and go directly to voicemail. Or you can set them based on who is calling or the time of day.

To set it to ring inside your Gmail, you go to your Google Voice settings and find where it says "Your Google Number forwards to..." and checkmark "Google Chat".

Now if you have your browser opened to your Gmail, a tone and a dialog pops up in Gmail when you got an incoming phone call. You can click "Answer" to answer the phone and talk. Or "Ignore" to not answer it. Or you can screen the call and see what the caller has to say as he/she is leaving you a voice mail.

You can see a video of a demonstration by TechCrunch.com on how outgoing and incoming calls work.

If someone leaves you a voice mail on Google Voice, you will get an email notification. Not only that, you also get an transcription of your voice message in the email. The transcription is an automated voice to text conversion, so it may not be 100% accurate. You will still want to listen to your actual voice message. But at least the transcription will give you a good enough overview to know how important the message is.

You can go to Google Voice to play your messages. Or if you have added your cell phone to your Google Voice, then you can use your cell phone to call your Google Voice number and access your voice message via a PIN.

Google Voice has other features such as blocking callers and conference calls. Watch these videos on some of the features of Google Voice.

One benefit of making calls on your computer is the low-cost way to call home to the United States if you are over-seas. Supposing that you are on a business trip to Europe and want to call back home to United States. Just pop open your netbook, connect to WiFi Internet, open Gmail and click place a call. Since the call that you are placing is in the United States, it is free (for now). No international or roaming charges that would occur if you were using your cell phone. And no over-seas telephone charges that would occur if you were using a phone in the hotel. And no need to mess with international calling cards.

In another scenario, suppose you are vacationing in Scandinavia, but you want to check to see if you have any voicemails at your work phone, home phone, and cell phone.  Instead of dialing into the voice boxes of each of these.   Just prior to your vacation, have all these phones forward all calls to your Google Voice number and set Google Voice to no forwarding.  That mean all calls from all your phones will end up in your Google Voice mail box.  Then you can occasionally (perhaps once a day, or once a week), connect to WiFi with your netbook and play back any messages in Google Voice on your browser.

Google has put all this together with the help of technologies acquired by other companies.

On July 2007, Google acquired GrandCentral for $95 million. GrandCentral was founded in 2005 by Graig Walker and Vincent Paquet. GrandCentral was the basis for what is Google Voice today. On November 2009, Google acquired Gizmo5 for $30 million. Gizmo5 is a softphone and a Voice over IP communication network. ^[ref]

What is "Voice over IP"? IP is "Internet Protocal" and "Voice over IP" is voice data over the internet. The calls that you make via Gmail and Google Voice is voice over IP (or VoIP for short). Instead of transmitting your voice through traditional land telephone lines, your voice data is transmitted via the Internet.

A softphone is a software phone. Instead of using a hand held traditional phone where you speak into a mouth piece. You speak into your computer's microphone and you hear out of its speakers. The softphone is the software that runs on your computer and ties these hardware together.

And then in May 2010, Google purchased Global IP Solutions for $68.2 million.^[ref]

Making a phone call may sound easy.  But it is not easy making all this happen behind the scenes. Look at the amount of money Google paid to acquire these technologies.

Of course Google Voice is not the only voice over IP technology. Most notably, Skype is major player in the voice over IP field. In fact Skype, had started out using Global IP Solutions technology which Google had now bought.

Just like Google, you can make and receive calls from Skype on your computer. Skype also gives you a telephone number and voicemail. Skype has various prices for these services.

Fortune calls Gmail Voice Service a "Skype-Killer". But PCWorld says that Google is still missing some things that Skype has. And ComputerWorld.com is undecided.

Skype has packaged price plans. Gmail voice only has a browser version and does not have a desktop app -- yet. So you might accidentally close your browser and lose a call. Gmail Voice service is not available outside of U.S. -- yet.

Many people have mentioned that the voice quality of the two is comparable.

Calls to cell phones and land-lines in the U.S. are free with Google, but not so with Skype. And with such low cost-calling, some Skype users may be tempted to switch to Gmail Voice. However, remember Google is only committing to free U.S. and Canada calls only until the end of 2010. After that, who knows how Google plan to monetize the service? If you are a Skype user, you might want to wait until after that before you cancel your Skype account.

This article was written on August 29, 2010. Depending on when you are reading it, things might have already changed and some of the above information may by now be out-dated. You know how fast Google moves and the pace of technology happens almost in a blink of an eye. Contents were believed to be correct by the author at the time of writing. But author is not responsible nor liable for content. Content is provided "As-Is" and may become outdated, consists of errors, and have other limitations.