Call phones from Gmail | Hacker News Reader

Call phones from Gmail

googleblog.blogspot.com

264 pointsBlazingFrog122 comments

The bridge that this is adding between Google Voice and the browser is really great. It really adds a lot of value to Google Voice, because you don't end up starting a call from your browser to then have to pick up your phone. You can, if you want to, do everything from your browser.

They put the accent on Gmail but I see the value more on the Google Voice side where your computer really becomes part of it by being an end point as much as your other phones.

addendum: in my personal case, this is a serious threat to my use of Skype. And I also won't be surprised if a version of this makes it to Google TV. At least, I wish it will: phone screening and conversations from your couch, easy transfer to other phones, etc.

And if you have Google Voice setup to handle voicemail for your cell phone it will forward missed calls from your cell phone to Gmail before dropping them into voicemail. This is awesome for me because sometimes I'd rather answer a call through my headphones and keep my hands free than pick up my cell phone. This integration is definitely going to increase my use of my Google Voice account.

Too bad some of us have a Google account for Google Voice, and a different account for Google Apps for Your Domain (email).

Guess my GV number will always be disjointed, unless they add GV to the Apps and have some way of transferring an old account in...

There was some news from a few weeks ago that Google is testing out this functionality: http://lifehacker.com/5578666/google-apps-vs-google-accounts...

Yeah, but Google seems to continue to launch features with an opened ended ETA for when it will reach Apps users. This is why I'm just sticking with my Google account and using my Gapps account for my personal email and nothing else Google related.

One thing to note: the blog post says that calls in US and Canada are free at least through the end of the year.

I asked about this during the Q&A (seemed like a pretty big asterisk) and they said they have every intention of keeping it free as long as they can, provided that the margins on international calls cover the expenses for the free US/Canada calls. Fingers crossed.

Wait, what? They use the rest of the world to subsidize their free US/Canada calls? That’s certainly a convincing reason for me (= rest of the world) to never ever use that service.

Why? If the prices are still cheaper than what you would pay otherwise, would you still boycott it? This isn't a novel business concept - airlines do this too with business/first class subsidizing economy - does this mean you don't fly either?

Look at it this way. When I fly business or first class I'd be subsidizing for those who can't afford a normal flight cost.

I don't think it would be right to claim whole of US can't afford paying for GMail calls while the entire world outside it can pay more to keep it free for Americans.

It can also be interpreted to mean that international call from US will be charged. As long as these calls make up for the cost US-US and US-Canada calls would remain free.

It is not that rest of the world that will subsidize. It is the international callers who'll.

Ah, that makes more sense. Like Google Voice, this will probably not even be available for the rest of the world for a long, long time. Still sucks, but less :)

It appears to me, just because I've got my country/language set to US English.

I don't think that's really the case. I can call Germany for $0.02 with gVoice and that's pretty much the cheapest I've ever seen for a international rate. Even my family over there can't call the USA for less than EUR 0.019 (which is MORE than gVoice)

Maybe you intended to say 0.19.

0.019 < 0.02

0.019 Euro > 0.02 US Dollar

Watch the units :)

Sorry, my fault. This really teaches me to read better comments, especially here on Hacker News. Thank you for pointing this.

My preferred carrier has it for about half that, even after markup: http://www.callwithus.com/showrates/G

Holy crap that's cheap. How's the quality?

Satisfactory to most destinations, speaking as a phreaker with sensitive ears. I strongly recommend them.

I use 12voip. It's cheaper. http://www.12voip.com/en/calling-rates.html

That's not cheap at all! I use JustVoip where landlines to most of the countries are free (after you charge your credit) and mobiles are less than half this amount.

http://www.justvoip.com/en/calling-rates.html

Yes, sorry for not being more clear in my original post. It sounded to me like fees from outbound international calls originating in the US will be used to subsidize the domestic US calls.

This is based on the very shaky assumption that international callers won't learn to use Skype or Google's own VOIP chat.

It's hard to get my 93 year-old grandma on Skype.

Easier once she takes a look at the bill and sucks air through her teeth and says "so then, how do you make this computer free phone thing work?"

I doubt they're her teeth.

No it can't be interpreted to mean that, because it's incorrect.

I'm in France, and if i want to call France, i have to pay. But i'm not making any international calls.

What it can be interpreted to mean though, is that Google wants to focus on us audience first, as they do with nearly all their services.

I'm not in the US, but i'm fine with that. If they want to offer good service, they first have to make it viable economically.

It relies on Google Voice which is not available in France anyway.

Hell no! As long as it is still cheaper and the service is as good, I am going to use it. I saw the international prices and I am going to end up paying almost half to what Skype charges. So, I am definitely in!

I checked the rates and they are similar to Skype , basically very expensive. I use LocalPhone and very happy.

To call Nepal, skype was 0.39 while google is 0.19. I just checked localphone and it is 0.149. very cool! How is the service of LocalPhone? Would to love to know your experience and looking forward to give it a try.

I may be slightly biased as I work for Localphone, but we pride ourselves in delivering a quality service for a reasonable price. The cool thing about this that Google have opened up is that you can call any of our (Localphone) US access numbers for free from your Gmail inbox, and then take advantage of our cheap rates to compete the international leg of the call.

The fact that I have to enter the pin and password turned me off. Rebtel is a similar service and they give me a new local phone number for each international number. They are a bit expensive compare to localphone but atleast I don't have to enter any of these pin and passcode stuff.

Also, the free test call does not really work. When I end up creating an account, it says you have no funds. where did test call go?

I think the quality is the same . It's mainly the problems of the destination infrastructure, I usually never blame Skype or LocalPhone. But I found that for LocalPhone on weekends , sometimes the lines are busy (Montreal,Canada) so I have to wait couple of hours to be able to call - but it's very rare.

tuxychandru has it right.

From the article: "Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at our very low rates."

And: "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."

Also, you might want to check out the rates (they do seem pretty cheap for international calls, but I'm not an American so I don't know the standard): https://www.google.com/voice/rates,

Are you going to use a service that is worse and/or more expensive then? If their international rates are competitive, there's nothing wrong with that. Not all services are profit centers. Some need to be subsidized. Others should be subsidized for strategic/marketing reasons (which is likely what we see here).

Sure, and the people who buy AdWords subsidize search for the rest of us who don't. So?

Way to rain on Skype's IPO hype.

Definitely a comment that is worth a prop. In addition, I am completely impressed with the lack of lag in the voice calling that I constantly have issues with in Skype.

If you could pick up in Gmail, have solid to no lag, Google could produce a podcaster's wet dream

I suspect it was probably more like Skype rushing to get the IPO done after Google bought Gizmo5. They had to know it was coming pretty quick.

Skype is obviously concerned but I wonder if this is also part of a longterm "Google Me" strategy against Facebook.

Facebook already has email and chat, so one logical next step would be video chat and then calls. People already list phone numbers in their profiles and when I look at FB contacts through their mobile interface, Calling is always an option.

This is, of course, just speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if both turn out to be true

Currently not for users also outside the USA. (I initially thought it'd be for all users, but calls only to North America) This is as useful as Hulu right now :)

Yep, can't see it either (I'm in Finland).

This would be useful for calling my own phone to find it from my apartment :) (I dont have skype open usually).

I can't see it either (I'm in the US)

I'm going to guess that it will take a bit of time to propagate across all Googles servers?

Same here, looks like they're rolling it out over the next few days:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/chat/thread?tid=74c14d...

Well, I'm in Canada and it works for me; I just called myself. Google Voice [1] now also works for me and displays my call history, but it won't let me upgrade.

[1] https://www.google.com/voice

I'm in Australia and just called myself from Gmail (not free though).

I'm in Japan and can see it. However, I also have a Google Voice number which was automatically associated with it. I suspect that may take precedence over geographic location

I'm in Germany and I can see it, but it's just not working. I can dial but allways get the message that my call could not be completet (tried to call US, Canada and Germany). My fault, Googles fault or does it show up without working on purpose?

I wonder if this portends integrated VOIP calling in Android?

I'm hoping so. There are many times when I have sucky T-Mobile coverage but have access to wifi (like when I'm in the back corner of our building :-O) where this would be perfect.

I was really lucky in that I got a Gizmo5 account shortly before they were acquired by google. They created an Android app called Guava that did just that (limited to 3 minutes at a time unless you pay). It comes in handy when I'm traveling internationally as I can make free 3 minute phone calls to the US.

Since Google owns Gizmo5 now and I'm assuming that this new browser calling feature is a result of the acquisition I wouldn't be surprised if an Android app is going to be out soon.

IIRC, Guava was actually based on Sipdroid, which is under active development. If you pair your Gizmo5 number with your Google Voice account, and sign into your Gizmo5 account with Sipdroid, you can easily make free Google Voice calls on your device. It's just a little roundabout. For outgoing calls, I think you have to initiate the via Google Voice's web interface, then answer the connecting call with Sipdroid. Works like a charm.

http://sipdroid.org/

I hope so for several reasons. One being that I don't normally have gmail open (I prefer thunderbird/IMAP + an XMPP app for IM), but my Nexus One is always on.

I'm looking forward to this being rolled out beyond North America. I'd love a sensible Skype alternative (I hate Skype's UI with a passion, and it drops my calls all the time).

I'm looking forward to this being rolled out to North America, which it looks like is a long ways off. This is fully USA-only right now and for the near future too.

Sure, Americans can call Canadians. But Canadians can't call Americans! What's up with that?

As America's hat, Canadians aren't believed to have anything important to say. However, we like to call you every once in a while to tell you how well we're doing. ;)

> However, we like to call you every once in a while to tell you how good we're doing. ;)

I guess that's why I haven't got a call recently. Not doing too well, eh? ;)

Ah, indeed. I failed to pick up on "calls to Canadian phones are free for now" != "available in Canada" during my quick read.

I'm in Australia and have access.

I don't see this in my Gmail account, and I didn't see any mention of how they're rolling it out.

Any ideas as to when it'll be enabled for all US users?

Edit: Nevermind, found it.

"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)."

Looks like Google Voice's integration of Gizmo5 is complete. And they they rolled out to Gmail which gives a bigger starting user base then voice would. I wonder what their profit angle on this is.

Hopefully it's not complete until you can use the service from a third-party SIP client.

I wonder what their profit angle on this is.

I'd imagine it would be to integrate voice into Gmail and Gmail into your cell phone.

This moves Google one step closer to the telco's businesses. With all the talk of mobile computing, I'm sure they can do something (use it as a basis for a "Google network", bargaining chip, just make them nervous, ...)

Like many people here, I keep Gmail open all day long -- so this feature goes a long way towards making Gmail a complete communications platform. Combined with browser plugins like Rapportive, the utility of Gmail just keeps increasing.

What a surprise, it's not available for Apps users.

Nor Canadians. But these things will come, in time. :)

I'm still waiting for Google Voice to make its debut in Canada. I think this will be a long time before this feature comes to Canada too.

You do realize that Google has a strong political stance of annexationism with regards to Canada. That's why they withhold features from Canadians, to induce them to agree to annexation by the US.

Google made their stance blindingly obvious when they named their phone Nexus One! Unity through annexation of Canada by America!

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=38614

I wonder how long can Google pretend to care about Apps users. The Gmail/Apps fragmentation is rapidly heading toward unsustainability.

I'd be happy with some of the gmail labs being available in Apps. Like undo send?

I'm with you. Tell us that Apps users matter, or don't. But say something.

Undo send is available for Apps (at least for me). Actually all the labs features are available. Have you or your admin activated labs for your Apps Account?

They are; your admin needs to turn them on. Go to:

https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/example.com/DomainSettings

Under New Services and Pre-release Features

They do -- it just isn't obvious to you. I administer a GAPE domain with 19,900 accounts and we absolutely are listened to and provided personalized service. That said, as Apps has grown in revenue it's been harder to influence their roadmap (back when we signed up it was pretty easy to get their engineers to do things we wanted -- email me for info if you are interested).

I think now Skype has some real competitor. This is also going to add lots of value to Google Apps product.

yeah it really does. I call international a lot and the prices are almost half for me compared to skype. So, if the phone service is good, I am definitely off from Skype.

Because I have Google Voice setup to handle my voicemail for calls made to my T-Mobile phone number, when I miss a call to my T-Mobile phone number (or send it to voicemail) it pops up in Gmail and gives me a chance to accept the call through Gmail. This is awesome.

Now if only they could get us google voice in Canada...

So when will this make it in to Google Apps?

I wonder how it will integrate with Google Voice. Unfortunately, I'll probably continue to use Skype because Skype has a working iPhone client.

I just logged into my Voice account. It shows I have a $1.00 calling credit, but when I click on the question mark next to that note, I get the following:

    Calling Credit shows how much credit you have available to make international calls from Google Voice. Calls made within the U.S. and Canada are free and don't affect your balance.

I love the idea of Google voice, and I want to like it. I've installed it 3 times on my Android phone, and then uninstalled it.

But, then I realize that they already have my email, schedule, internet search and probably have a very good idea about my web traffic even though I don't use them for analytics.

I'll stick with Skype and Vonage rather than give GOOG access to a library of my voice conversations.

Wouldn't this improve the number of spam calls I get? It looks like there won't be any cost to the caller to place a call.

I would dearly love a "report spam" button for phone calls. But then, the land line which needs it most will be the last line to get it.

Google Voice effectively has this feature in the form of "block call".

I can't call my Google Voice number from Skype out. It says the number doesn't exist or is not in service. Is it possible that Skype could be blocking known Google Voice numbers? It seems unlikely but possible. Has anybody else encountered this problem?

Anyone know if it's going to be available in Canada?

I'm a Canadian gmail user, and I can use it.

Thanks. So it's just a matter of time then.

API?

it would be awesome to have an api for this.

Now if only my Google voice number wouldn't give a busy signal to half of the people that try to call me, I would love this.

Fantastic, now I don't have to pay for Skype Out any more.

only till end of this year.

why isn't this feature in google voice instead?

Or both :)?

how do they make money out of calls?

They listen for good stock tips and act on them.

Such as the Skype IPO

Training voice recognition, perhaps? Or monitoring all your calls and using them to target advertisements, as they do with email. It's all probably in the fine print. Note, however, that I don't have any proof of it; these are just my first thoughts of how to make money off of calls. Other people have suggested that they're going to hope that international calls cover the cost of domestic calls, and otherwise potentially start charging for local.

Why is this a plugin?

To get reasonable (any) access to your computer's microphone, speaker, and video.

I guess Flash isn't reasonable...

They probably want a reliable and streamlined access to the audio and video. With a plugin they're probably able to go at a lower-level in the OS and have much better control and quality.

It just showed up in my Gmail and I got a message "Flash is required to make a call." (I keep plugins disabled for most sites.) So it looks like you have to have both Flash and Google's voice plugin installed and enabled.

Why on earth is this not available through, you know, http://google.com/voice. Or is Voice going to get rolled into Gmail?

I believe that Google sees Gmail as the primary app that people use and are rolling the other one into it. One is much more likely to keep a Gmail tab open all day long than a Google Voice one, so it makes sense to have it in Gmail.

Note that it integrates with Google Voice: the outbound calls show up with your GV number and inbound GV calls can ring inside Gmail. I would be surprised if ultimately GV is not completely inside Gmail.

With the overhaul of the Gmail UI (especially Mail/Contacts/Tasks being where they are, I would not at all be surprised to find that you are correct.

"free" calls in the US is a lie. as most operators bill you for received call minutes.

And calls to google voice (even the call back feature) does not count as "free cell phone minutes" according to bloodsucking at&t

It's free for the person initiating the call on their computer. Cell phone companies never, as far as I know, extended free minutes to incoming calls as is the case for land lines. So, obviously any minutes on a cell phone would be charged any fees regardless.

The per-minute charge for cellphone minutes is intended to cover the cost of delivering the call over a radio channel, which is an expensive and limited resource. European cellular carriers will often charge the caller the full cost of the call (using a special area code which has a higher per-minute rate) and allow customers to receive calls without using up their own money.

This was tried in the United States with area codes 500 and 533. It didn't take off, probably because callers didn't like the cost of a call being unpredictable (carriers could set a different call cost for each 500-NXX block).

in Brazil any number starting with 7,8,9 are cell phones. you know you will be paying cellphone call price. Just like it is with VoIP.

In California i waste most of my minutes receiving "usted ganhaste la loteria" calls.

how exactly is it free then?

person X sitting on their computer, they click call person Y.

google will first call person X's mobile (he will pay to receive) and then call person Y's mobile (he will also pay to receive) and connects both.

so, where is the free part?

And since the monetary currency in mobile bills are minutes, you are paying the exact same thing as if person X just picked the phone and called person Y.

actually, if he did that, then it may be really free as operators gives more minutes for mobile to mobile calls! which is not the case when receiving a google voice callback by starting the call in the browser.

The new Google phone service is entirely on the PC. It doesn't call your phone like the original Google Voice.

Wow, that dialpad looks remarkably like the iPhone dialpad.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com