How To Use Google Voice To Make Audio And Video Calls: Have you heard of Google Voice? Do you know how to use the google feature to make calls? Whatever your answer is, in this article, we want to take a look at what Google voice is all about and how to use it to make calls online.
Google Voice is a telephone service that provides call forwarding and voicemail services, voice and text messaging, as well as U.S. and international call termination[when defined as?] for Google Account customers in the U.S., and for G Suite customers in Canada, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. The service was launched by Google on March 11, 2009, after the company had acquired the service GrandCentral.
Google Voice provides a U.S. telephone number, chosen by the user from available numbers in selected area codes, free of charge to each user account. Calls to this number are forwarded to telephone numbers that each user must configure in the account web portal. Multiple destinations may be specified that ring simultaneously for incoming calls. Service establishment requires a United States telephone number. A user may answer and receive calls on any of the ringing phones as configured in the web portal. During a received call the user may switch between the configured telephones.
Users in the U.S. may place outbound calls to domestic and international destinations. Calls may be initiated from any of the configured telephones, as well as from a mobile device app, or from the account portal. As of August 2011, users in many other countries also may place outbound calls from the web-based application to domestic and international phone numbers.
This article is all about how to make both audio and video calls on google voice. If you however need more information on the feature, you can visit Wikipedia.
How To Use Google Voice To Make Audio And Video Calls
Before, google used to have what is known as gmail calling that allow people that have signed up for a google account to make free voice calls withing the account. But today, gmail voice calling has migrated to both audio and video calling that is now known a google voice call.
Before you can start using google voice calls, there are certain things you need to put in place.
Google Voice Call Requirements
- A Google email account. There are big chances you have an account with the most popular email service. If you don’t, you can have one in a couple of minutes by registering at gmail.com.
- The Gmail voice and video plugin. This is a small add-on for your browser. Sounds geeky, but it is now. From your browser, just go to this link and click on “Install voice and video chat” download and install the plugin. There is nothing else you should do. Note that you can have this plugin only for Windows XP with SP3 or a later version of Windows, for MacOS X 10.5 or later and on any recent Linux distribution. The plugin is about 2 MB, which is quite light.
- A webcam for video calling and audio devices. You can use your system speaker and microphone, but a headset is preferable for better quality.
How To Use Google Voice To Make Audio And Video Calls
Here are the steps you need to follow to start using Google Voice for making video and audio calls:
Log in to your Gmail account.
Next, you will need to locate the list of your contacts at the lower left side of the browser window.
If however, you do not see your list of contacts, which may happen if you are a new user, you will need to look for the small icons that make you think of voice and video, like the square bubble and camera.
Now, you will need to use the Search People box to search for any Google contact you have. Once you get the person you want to talk to, click on their name.
In fact, by just hovering with your mouse cursor on the name or address gives you a window with options.
But on clicking, a small window pops up within your browser window and settles itself neatly on the lower right corner, discretely without disruption anything of your view. A prompt is ready for instant text messaging.
If you want to make a phone call, click on the phone icon. For a video call, click on the camera icon.
You can also add other participants to this call by clicking the third button. Note that conferencing is allowed only for voice calls, as video calls are only one to one.
You can click on the pop-up icon, represented by an arrow pointing north-east, to make the window larger and possibly take a full browser size.
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