6 ms·

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

86 points by redDragon 14y ago

benguild 14y 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 14y 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.
plg 14y 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.
- hnriot 14y 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.
  - plg 14y 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.
    - asdfologist 14y ago
      Um, I don't read any of that stuff, and yet it's common sense that FB, Google, etc. store your data. It's not that most people don't know -- it's that they don't care.
    - ryanhuff 14y ago
      Equally as important (for some people), is that these free services are sometimes only free up until they gain enough mass to become a real business. People should consider these free services as limited time offers, which may require switching sometime later.
    - 3825 14y ago
      I pay the carriers for cell phone plan but they give out my call / text records to law enforcement for a pay without warrant anyways. I don't think Gmail would hand local law enforcement such data without a warrant. Even if it did, it would still be no worse. I know we think that paying makes us customers and they will care about us. However, it probably does not apply to naturally monopolistic markets of traditional/cell telephony and Internet services providers.
  - loceng 14y 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 14y 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.
  - plg 14y ago
    How about the content of the phone calls?
    - magicalist 14y ago
      What about it? Not sure about Canada, but in the US, at least, they definitely can't record it without at least one party knowing, and the state-by-state laws on that point are varied enough that if you start recording one of your conversations, google voice warns both sides of the conversation. Additionally: "Google does not claim any ownership in any of the content that you or your callers upload, transmit or store in your Google Voice account. We will not use any of your content for any purpose except to provide you with the Service." http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlevoice/legal-notices.html http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlevoice/legal-notices.html Come to think of it, does anyone know of where google makes money here? Is it just international calls? Even the voice transcription training probably isn't that lucrative, because you have to have users click on a message and say "Donate this voicemail" for it to be used as training data.
      - plg 14y ago
        Thanks for clarifying, it's good to know that they are not supposed to access the content of voice calls. Maybe it's simply a loss-leader to get people jumping onto the google wagon with the rest of their services.
      - yoshamano 14y ago
        Google doesn't make money on Google Voice. It serves the same purpose as GOOG-411 served. To receive and process a large number of voice samples (from voicemails) to improve their voice search products. There's probably some other pie-in-the-sky ideas for Google Voice, but that's the only one I know of.
- k-mcgrady 14y 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.
  - plg 14y 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.
    - k-mcgrady 14y ago
      True
    - jordonwii 14y ago
      Exactly what information does one give Google when using those services?
- therandomguy 14y 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".
- theorique 14y ago
  Free as in beer rather than free as in speech, if you prefer.
- dannyr 14y 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 14y 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.
- hnriot 14y 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-mcgrady 14y 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]
    - 3825 14y ago
      I was told skype phones were pretty big in the UK. Is that not the case? I talked to someone on skype while he was on the bus (or so he told me)
      - justincormack 14y ago
        one of the networks sells with it as a selling point, or you can install the app. In London buses have decent bandwidth.
  - w1ntermute 14y 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.
  - 14y ago
dkhenry 14y 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.
- josh2600 14y 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.
  - IgorPartola 14y 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=Dd7zGnC8nNW http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html#fbid=Dd7zGn...
jeffool 14y 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 14y 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.
  - untog 14y 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.
    - jeffool 14y ago
      I'm sorry, I don't quite understand your comment. iMessage uses SMS/MMS. People with Apple phones can send texts and media files to non-Apple phones just fine. (And iPhones are a third of the market. That hardly makes you "one of few".)
      - AjithAntony 14y ago
        Actually I think iMessage is in fact not SMS/MMS. I'm not an apple user so I don't have first hand experience. Perhaps there is an SMS bridge on the backend server to deliver to non-ios devices.
  - jeffool 14y 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.
barking 14y 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 14y ago
To place a call to a phone number in Gmail ... http://support.google.com/chat/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=187615 http://support.google.com/chat/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answe...
lftl 14y 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.
- josh2600 14y 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 http://www.2600hz.com the makers of Kazoo.
- AjithAntony 14y ago
  FWIW, I got a Google voice voicemail notification just today running the regular Google voice app.
EwanG 14y 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.
- mtgx 14y ago
  They should hurry up and use Opus then.

86 points by redDragon 14y 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 14y 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.

plg 14y 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.

hnriot 14y 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.
- plg 14y 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.
  - asdfologist 14y ago
    Um, I don't read any of that stuff, and yet it's common sense that FB, Google, etc. store your data. It's not that most people don't know -- it's that they don't care.
  - ryanhuff 14y ago
    Equally as important (for some people), is that these free services are sometimes only free up until they gain enough mass to become a real business. People should consider these free services as limited time offers, which may require switching sometime later.
  - 3825 14y ago
    I pay the carriers for cell phone plan but they give out my call / text records to law enforcement for a pay without warrant anyways. I don't think Gmail would hand local law enforcement such data without a warrant. Even if it did, it would still be no worse. I know we think that paying makes us customers and they will care about us. However, it probably does not apply to naturally monopolistic markets of traditional/cell telephony and Internet services providers.
- loceng 14y 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 14y 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.
- plg 14y ago
  How about the content of the phone calls?
  - magicalist 14y ago
    What about it? Not sure about Canada, but in the US, at least, they definitely can't record it without at least one party knowing, and the state-by-state laws on that point are varied enough that if you start recording one of your conversations, google voice warns both sides of the conversation. Additionally: "Google does not claim any ownership in any of the content that you or your callers upload, transmit or store in your Google Voice account. We will not use any of your content for any purpose except to provide you with the Service." http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlevoice/legal-notices.html http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlevoice/legal-notices.html Come to think of it, does anyone know of where google makes money here? Is it just international calls? Even the voice transcription training probably isn't that lucrative, because you have to have users click on a message and say "Donate this voicemail" for it to be used as training data.
    - plg 14y ago
      Thanks for clarifying, it's good to know that they are not supposed to access the content of voice calls. Maybe it's simply a loss-leader to get people jumping onto the google wagon with the rest of their services.
    - yoshamano 14y ago
      Google doesn't make money on Google Voice. It serves the same purpose as GOOG-411 served. To receive and process a large number of voice samples (from voicemails) to improve their voice search products. There's probably some other pie-in-the-sky ideas for Google Voice, but that's the only one I know of.
k-mcgrady 14y 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.
- plg 14y 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.
  - k-mcgrady 14y ago
    True
  - jordonwii 14y ago
    Exactly what information does one give Google when using those services?
therandomguy 14y 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".
theorique 14y ago
Free as in beer rather than free as in speech, if you prefer.
dannyr 14y 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 14y 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.

hnriot 14y 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-mcgrady 14y 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]
  - 3825 14y ago
    I was told skype phones were pretty big in the UK. Is that not the case? I talked to someone on skype while he was on the bus (or so he told me)
    - justincormack 14y ago
      one of the networks sells with it as a selling point, or you can install the app. In London buses have decent bandwidth.
- w1ntermute 14y 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.
- 14y ago

dkhenry 14y 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.

josh2600 14y 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.
- IgorPartola 14y 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=Dd7zGnC8nNW http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html#fbid=Dd7zGn...

jeffool 14y 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 14y 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.
- untog 14y 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.
  - jeffool 14y ago
    I'm sorry, I don't quite understand your comment. iMessage uses SMS/MMS. People with Apple phones can send texts and media files to non-Apple phones just fine. (And iPhones are a third of the market. That hardly makes you "one of few".)
    - AjithAntony 14y ago
      Actually I think iMessage is in fact not SMS/MMS. I'm not an apple user so I don't have first hand experience. Perhaps there is an SMS bridge on the backend server to deliver to non-ios devices.
- jeffool 14y 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.

barking 14y 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 14y ago

To place a call to a phone number in Gmail ... http://support.google.com/chat/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=187615 http://support.google.com/chat/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answe...

lftl 14y 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.

josh2600 14y 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 http://www.2600hz.com the makers of Kazoo.
AjithAntony 14y ago
FWIW, I got a Google voice voicemail notification just today running the regular Google voice app.

EwanG 14y 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.

mtgx 14y ago
They should hurry up and use Opus then.