How to Make Free International, Long Distance, and Local Phone Calls with Google Voice?

Major telecommunications companies may be in for some serious competition now that google Inc. has decided to press into the telephone market, offering Gmail users as well as standalone users of google Voice to make international (Canada / U.S.), long distance, and local phone calls for free via computer.

How to Make Free Phone Calls Through Gmail

google Voice is conveniently installed into the Gmail chat interface for users who prefer to have all of their communications solutions in one single place. The service is currently available for users in the United States and Canada.

To make a free phone call with google Voice from within Gmail, simply log into your Gmail account. Observe the chat panel which loads on the left hand side of the internet browser window. Just above the names of your online contacts, a “Call Phones” option is highlighted.

Click this icon to bring up a keypad dialer onscreen. Enter the number you'd like to dial (including international and regional area codes) and continue with the call. This service, as of yet, is only available to Canadians and Americans.

Features and Benefits of Using google Voice, Standalone

The google Voice suite also offers a multitude of other options for those who live in the United States – the full service is, as yet, not available to users from outside of the USA. At www.google.com/voice, users can gain access to:

• Voicemail Transcription: All voicemail messages that are filtered through your google Voice number and account are subjected to computerized transcription – that is, text transcriptions of each voicemail message are produced and left in your inbox alongside the audio. This process is not exactly precise – given the limitations of speech-to-text software at this time, but they are quite remarkable and a neat little feature to have!
• One Number: Really one of the central features provided by google Voice, One Number refers to the ability for users to choose their own google number during setup. This google number can be searched within a variety of area codes, and users can also search for numbers that spell out Words. It's important to remember that the area code must be local in terms of your friends in family for them to place calls to it without incurring long-distance fees. This “one number” can be set to immediately and simultaneously forward the call to any number of other phones – cellular or landline – and even be set to call different phones based on what time of day it is. While registering for google Voice, these options will be presented immediately during sign-up.
• International Calling: With rates to many international countries starting at a mere .02 per minute, google Voice is really hoping to strike it big with the movers and shakers (or backpackers, or students) looking to take great advantage of the inexpensive international calling feature. From any standard cellular phone, users can simply dial their local google Voice number and be prompted to further enter the international number they would like to dial. Users who own an Android OS based cellular phone can actually make the international calls at the reduced rate via their own native dialer.

For businesspeople on the go, students, homebodies, or simply those who like to keep in touch at all time, google Voice is a revolutionary new approach to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) that provides reduced rate long-distance, local, and international calling to users within the United States.