Google rolled out some major updates across a number of its services back in May, one of which would unify its multiple chat services into a single “Hangouts” service. Unfortunately, Google didn’t look into how the change would affect all of its users as soon after Hangouts’ roll out, Google Voice users soon learned they weren’t able to make calls from within Gmail to Google Hangouts. Shortly after this issue was discovered, Google said its Hangouts would receive Voice support “soon.” Two months later, Google has made good on its promise by making voice calls possible once again through Gmail.
Google has rolled out the ability to make phone calls not only from within the desktop version of Gmail, but also from Google+ and its Chrome extension. Google is also making all calls to the U.S. and Canada for free, so long as the country your calling from supports Hangouts calls. According to a blog post announcing Hangouts support of voice calls, the service “is designed to be the future of Google Voice” as users can use a number of new features such as adding multiple phone numbers and video calls within the same call as well as being able to use sound effects during calls.
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