Gmail phone calls remain free of charge in 2013 for US and Canada

http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/26/gmail-google-voice-free-2013/

by redDragon • 14 years ago

86 74 14 years ago

benguild• 14 years ago

How I remain on the lowest AT&T minute plan, and have no plans to switch. If I'm logged into email all day, why kill my phone's battery? :thumbup:

jdonahue• 14 years ago

Agreed. And this might be just me, but I greatly prefer talking on a computer (laptop or desktop) to holding a phone in my hand up to my ear. Especially for long personal calls or calls to businesses where I know I'll probably be on hold forever (e.g. Comcast) - it is INSANELY handy for that. Speaker phone would probably accomplish something similar but the audio quality in and out is lower on my phone than on my laptop, and it also (like you said) uses minutes. The calls are also more reliable in my experience - I've never had a call dropped or had the audio cut out over Gmail on a good WiFi connection.

plg6• 14 years ago

I'm not sure I would call it "free". Sure, you don't have to give google money, but on the other hand, you have to give them them all sorts of other info. This is not free. It's time people started acknowledging this.

hnriot2• 14 years ago

free is defined in termed of payment of monies. You're thinking of no string attached, or some other word or phrase.

While this may seem like semantics, it is the basis of communications, that we all agree on the definition of certain words, otherwise we have linguistic chaos.

So, yes, while it doesn't require any monetary payment (free), there are strings attached.

plg6• 14 years ago

True that's how most consumers think of "free" ... I think it's high time that consumers start thinking more deeply about the transaction(s) they are engaging in with companies like google, facebook, etc when they use "free" services. These are not charities, they are for-profit businesses (and there's nothing wrong with that) ... But I think consumers should inform themselves about the full nature of the transaction(s) they engage in when using "free" services. I know, there are terms of services, eulas, etc that people click "I agree" when signing up... But I would bet that 95% of people read NONE of that stuff. Buyer beware? Maybe.

loceng• 14 years ago

Perhaps legal definitions need to be updated, so "free" can't used if there are "strings attached" or rather an exchange of information or other.

watty• 14 years ago

Can you expand on what information is required to use this feature? I assume you can create a new account with little to no information (or fake information) and use it.

plg6• 14 years ago

How about the content of the phone calls?

k-mcgrady3• 14 years ago

It's termed as free because most people only care about the financial side of payment. If people can get a service like this for no charge I bet most couldn't care what information they are giving Google.

plg6• 14 years ago

I bet most people don't have a full understanding of what information they end up giving google by using google services like gmail, voice, even "just" search. I bet google likes it that way.

therandomguy• 14 years ago

Similarly the air you breath is not free. But if we were to get that technical we will have to invent words for various levels of "free". In this case let's just agree that the title meant "no exchange of money".

theorique2• 14 years ago

Free as in beer rather than free as in speech, if you prefer.

dannyr• 14 years ago

Seriously, has anybody claimed that a service is completely free?

Who in their right mind would give something completely free, no strings attached?

Start acknowledging? I'm pretty sick of people mumbling "If you're not paying for a product, you're a product" every time Google, et al releases a free service.

lucian1900• 14 years ago

But in the UK, I can't call at all from my phone (because Voice is only available in the US). I can only call from Gmail (with money).

It's annoying how many services are US-only.

hnriot2• 14 years ago

I moved to San Francisco, I wanted to base my career on where the world's computing is centered. I could have stayed in the UK and always been on the periphery, but felt that since my first love was technology, rather than good beer or tea, I just moved where the action is.

If you find it annoying, move.

k-mcgrady3• 14 years ago

I understand where you're coming from but no user should have to move country to get improved internet services. The internet is global and the services on it should be also. Did you think about staying in the UK and trying to address problems like this yourself (you would actually be better positioned to do so there)? [serious question]

w1ntermute• 14 years ago

> rather than good beer or tea

I don't know what exactly you're drinking, but there's plenty of good beer and tea in SF and other large US cities.

gabemart• 14 years ago

Isn't it extremely hard to get a visa to move to the US from the UK? What was your experience with that like?

Jagat• 14 years ago

I like this response. I often give the same response to people who ask me why I moved to the US. All I get is cold stares and jingoistic statements.

untog2• 14 years ago

Visas can make that difficult, though. You can't just pack up your bags and move in many cases.

theorique2• 14 years ago

If someone were going to be in SFO anyway, then this is an advantage for him.

On the other hand, for a person with significant ties to London (or other city or region in Europe) - family, career, lifestyle, whatever - it seems a bit much to move to the US because you get cheaper phone calls.

Other things being equal, I can't imagine that anyone would move from London to San Francisco because of free Gmail phone calls. (It reads like your comment is precisely about other things not being equal.)

haberman• 14 years ago

For cases where you're calling the US (admittedly probably not too often if you live in the UK) you can use the free app Talkatone (available on both iOS and Android). It's super useful if you're an American traveling abroad: just find WiFi (or a local data SIM card) and you can call all your peepz back home.

dkhenry• 14 years ago

This is by far the most overlooked feature of being a part of the Google ecosystem. I don't think Microsoft or Apply can match the ability for me to give out a number to someone, not a special username and not something that requires you to have a particular device, Just a plain old phone number. People can call me on that number and I can pick up on

1. My Phone 3. My Tablet 3. Any Computer I am logged into <- This one is special

In addition I can call other people using any of those devices and pay nothing for the privilege.

josh26008• 14 years ago

Look. Apple can go buy DID's from any number of vendors and become a phone company tomorrow.

They don't want the regulatory exposure, and frankly, Google doesn't either.

Buying a DID and doing call forwarding is ridiculously trivial to do. You can replicate Google Voice on your own servers in 10 minutes using Asterisk or other Open-source projects.

Disclaimer: I'm the community manager for 2600hz, a company that builds an open-source stack for Telecom applications. You can mirror this functionality in 10 minutes using our stack. You can also do this with Plivo easily. It's not rocket science.

IgorPartola3• 14 years ago

How much would it cost? And would I be able to transfer my Google number to my own setup (I have a really great vanity number and worked hard to get people to switch to it)? Also, would it let me do dial out with that number as well? How would the OS integration look like on iOS/Android? Could I get voicemail transcripts? Would setting this up use my "minutes" or "megabytes" on my mobile plan? If it's using megabytes how much would that be a per minute?

I am very happy with Google Voice so far, at least on an Android phone, but I from what I remember, iOS doesn't integrate with it as deeply. Also, I would love to be able to somehow ditch my "minutes" and only use the data connection for everything, but I am not sure if that's even possible today without carrying around a mobile hotspot.

Edit: also, GV gives me free text messaging. Can I replicate that with my own setup and how much will it cost? Do I have to use something like Twilio or Tropo for that and pay per message? What about MMS? Can I have those forwarded to my email?

If you choose to answer these, thanks in advance.

Edit 2: Looking at AT&T, they have decently priced data plans for things like tablets and gaming devices [1]. I understand that I can get a SIM card from them telling them I'll have a tablet on their network. Can I then buy an unlocked iPhone from Apple and do this type of setup you are talking about using SIP and something else for SMS and save money?

[1] http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html#fbid=Dd7zGn...

agwa• 14 years ago

> I don't think Microsoft or Apply can match the ability for me to give out a number to someone

If they're willing to burn the cash (and Apple certainly has a lot lying around), they could. Google isn't a telco and they're paying CLECs (competitive local exchange carriers) for every phone number and for terminating every minute of every call that a Google Voice user makes. This makes Google Voice quite different from their other products - unlike gmail for instance, most of the Google Voice product actually comes from other companies and most of the per-user cost is probably going directly to these companies rather than to their own infrastructure and software development costs. Yes, the Google Voice software and infrastructure is still important but just not to the same degree as their other products. I often wonder if this is the reason why they only commit to making Google Voice free for one year at a time.

harigov• 14 years ago

The difference is that Google provides ad based services. It's important that users remain loyal to use their services. Both Microsoft and Apple are predominantly product based companies. They sell products and all that matters is whether the product is good enough to pay for.

mtgx2• 14 years ago

Too bad Google has never been that serious about these VOIP options. I mean, where's my "VOIP Call" button next to the normal Call button in my Android phone? Why isn't the "Video Call" button there as well, like Facetime is in the iPhone? I've been expecting this to happen since Froyo in 2010, and I'm still waiting for it to happen.

Google only keeps them deep in the Google Talk app, and I bet most people using Android phones have no idea they are even there, so it's almost like they don't even exist. Google needs to do a better job of deeply integrating VOIP into Android, and I don't care that carriers won't like it. Same goes for their "Google Voice" service.

koalaman• 14 years ago

Because Google is afraid of pissing off the mobile operators I think.

nodata• 14 years ago

I've used other people's Android phones and seen the voip call option, perhaps it depends if you have a sip account configured.

jeffool4• 14 years ago

I love Google Voice; I do. It may not be smart, but I put it on my resume and as my primary contact info. But at the same time, that you can't receive mms is just crazy. I mean, forward it to my email even. I'm fine with that.

Partial sidenote: If I were, say, Yahoo, and looking to do a few big projects, this is one I'd tackle. Google has shown people will use it if it's simple, but there's not wide adoption. Yahoo Phone could supplant GVoice and things like SnapChat in one fell swoop.

timothya• 14 years ago

> But at the same time, that you can't receive mms is just crazy

To be fair, I don't think I've ever sent or received an MMS. I'm pretty sure it's not that common, so most people probably don't really miss it.

untog2• 14 years ago

I've noticed that a lot more people did it once iMessage arrived, which tends to compound the problem of being one of few non-iDevice users.

jeffool4• 14 years ago

Really? You've never had anyone send a picture or video to your phone?

Maybe it's that I live in southern Georgia (though in a city of 77k) but I tried explaining to people a few times that "if you're going to send a picture or video, send it to my email." The reply was usually the same, and hostile.

"I don't know how to send things to email on my phone!"

"You just type in my email. Or choose it from the contact list you chose my number from."

"Nevermind. I don't know why you have to make it complicated." And this is from 26 year olds who grew up with computers and use them daily.

justin66• 14 years ago

> To be fair, I don't think I've ever sent or received an MMS. I'm pretty sure it's not that common, so most people probably don't really miss it.

You do know this is the standard that is used for transferring photos via text message? Even my not-smartphone-savvy friends use this. MORE of them use it, it seems.

Zikes2• 14 years ago

I've had a few MMS messages forwarded to my email recently, but it seems to be hit-or-miss as that same person will send me an MMS while I'm standing next to them and I never receive a thing.

I think they're working on it.

sciwiz• 14 years ago

I think MMS support is only available if the sender is on Sprint.

mkhattab3• 14 years ago

I fear Google Voice might tread in the same path of Google App Engine. That is, switch pricing schemes after widespread adoption. Like you, I use my GV number as my primary and feel one of these days I'm going to get shafted. I might need to port my GV number to my SIP gateway provider, yet I'm too lazy to replicate the interfaces that I like.

craftkiller2• 14 years ago

I know I am not everyone but personally I wouldn't mind paying to continue to use Google Voice + Google Talk, though I am in the entering-the-workforce crowd so I hope they keep it free for students at least since they won't be able to afford it anyway.

craftkiller2• 14 years ago

I put google voice on my resume also. It was a real relief in coding interviews to be able to put on a headset and have both hands free to type out code. Also the sound quality was better than a cell phone so I was able to understand the interviewers without asking them to repeat themselves and I'm sure they could understand me better too. FInally, cell phone reception in my apartment barely exists but a wired ethernet connection is forever :-).

barking• 14 years ago

I don't mind paying for gmail calls here in Europe but what i really don't like is that I can't receive calls.

So I only ever use it when there's a problem with my mobile.

woodchuck64• 14 years ago

To place a call to a phone number in Gmail ... http://support.google.com/chat/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answe...

lftl• 14 years ago

Google Voice stopped delivering push notifications to my phone about a month ago. I have to open the voice app, or website occasionally to check if I have SMS or voicemail. I don't mind using Gmail for free because the service is generally top notch. For Google Voice, I'd rather be paying some money so I would have someone to complain to when it's not working. Since that's not an option, I've stopped giving out my Google Voice number to anyone.

josh26008• 14 years ago

You should look at Kazoo. We do all of the Google voice stuff (and a lot more) in a fully open-source package :).

Disclaimer: I'm the community manager for http://www.2600hz.com the makers of Kazoo.

AjithAntony2• 14 years ago

FWIW, I got a Google voice voicemail notification just today running the regular Google voice app.

EwanG• 14 years ago

Since I didn't see this in any of the comments at the time I wrote this...

While GMail/Google Voice calls are free, they are much more susceptible to noise, echo, etc due to the main codec (G.711) that they use. If you have a newer smartphone with a good 4G or WiFi connection you may be able to get by with this, but in my personal experience I had to move to Skype (and be willing to pay a few dollars a month) to get people to want to talk with me for any extended period of time.

With your homies, probably not a big deal. For a sales call or interview, or when you and your SO are trying to arrange to meet at a hospital due to an emergency, yeah you want the clearer call.

mtgx2• 14 years ago

They should hurry up and use Opus then.

Gmail phone calls remain free of charge in 2013 for US and Canada

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