Technology touches all of our lives now (look – you’re on a computer now!), so we thought it made sense to bring you tech pieces/reviews every now and again. Hope you enjoy it – Ed.
Google has just made a new feature publicly available – the ability to make phone calls using your computer from within Gmail.
Here’s some background on it and a quick review so you’ve got an idea what it’s like to use.
How has it come about?
Google have had the necessary pieces to do this for a long time.
Way back in 2007 they bought a company called GrandCentral which gave them the technology to be able to do it.
A couple of years later, March 2009, Google pulled their usual trick of letting a few people try the service in a beta test phase.
All of this testing and delay mean that they’ve been spending time to get it in to a state they think is good enough.
Now, they’ve finally launched it to the public – much to the annoyance of companies like Skype, we suspect.
Getting it
Initially Google are releasing this to their US users, but there’s an easy way to make them think you, as a UK person, qualify. Go to your Gmail settings and select your language as English (US). After some time (not yet sure how long it takes), Google will switch Google Voice on for you.
Once it alerts you, there’s a small piece of software that you need to install before using it.
Using it
After this, the Call Phone link sits on the left hand side of Gmail, under Chat. Clicking on it brings up a ‘soft phone’ where you can enter phone number with the keyboard, or by clicking on the on-screen key pad.
What’s very smart/sneaky is that all of the contacts that you have in your Gmail address book can be called, simply by typing in their name in to this soft phone (if you’ve got their phone number stored).
We’ve done a couple of test calls on it and if you’ve got your microphone on your computer set up right, the quality is usable.
Prices are competitive when compared to services like Skype. Calling a UK landline is 2 ¢/min (1.3p/min) and mobiles are 18 ¢/min (12p/min). Calls within the US and Canada are free.
Conclusion
Having it right to hand within Gmail is a major advantage, as being able to type the names of your contacts and it ‘knowing’ all of their phone numbers.
We’ve found the call quality reasonable, but haven’t made too many calls on it yet.
Summary
Whether you use it will all depend if you think you can get used to making phone calls from your computer.
With it, yet another part of the Google-takes-over-the-world jigsaw puzzle falls into place.
