Gmail Calling Review – Google International Calling

Making International Calls From Gmail

New Gmail Logo, use on the website from 2013
Juancameneses11, Google, INC./http://www.google.es/about/company/images/company-products.png/Public Domain
by Nadeem Unuth
Updated October 18, 2016

Google now offers the possibility of making and receiving international calls for cheap and free. Standing as a competitor for Skype by offering similar services, Google Calling allows people to make free PC-to-PC calls and cheap calls (as low as 2 cents per minute for some destinations) to and from mobile and landline phones. 2 cents per minute is not the cheapest on the market, but is among the cheapest, and it definitely cheaper than Skype.

Pros

  • Free PC-to-PC calls between Gmail users
  • Free PC-phone and phone-PC calls within the US and Canada
  • Cheap international calls
  • Good voice quality
  • Integration with gmail and other services, including those of Google Voice

Cons

  • While calls are allowed for everyone, full capabilities are only for people in the US.
  • Gmail and Google Voice are requisites

Review

In addition to being able to male free calls between Gmail users to and from computers worldwide, Google users can also make calls to landline and mobile phone, but not for free. Calls to phone within the US and Canada remain free, though.

Google’s calls are quite cheap, among the cheapest on the market, with 2 cents for some destinations like France and Argentina. These rates are much cheaper than those of Skype, which charge additional connection fees. However, Google’s calling minutes are more expensive than some players like Nymgo (as a matter of example), which offers calls for cheaper than a cent per minute.

Gmail calling is considered as a threat to Skype. Although it has a smaller subscriber base than Skype and isn’t as popular, it has the potential of challenging the number one VoIP provider. First, it offers calls for cheaper than Skype, then it brings along Google Voice’s arsenal features, like call recording, voicemail transcription etc. Also, it is incorporated with and email, which makes it better as a Unified Communications tool.

To receive calls within the service, you need a Google Voice number. Not so for making outgoing calls. Without a Google Voice number, your correspondent will see 760-705-8888 on their caller ID, which is Google default number for this service. If you have a Google Voice number, it will appear instead.

There is no need to install a separate application for the service. You just need to download a plugin for Gmail that will be installed and used within your browser. To make a call, just log into your Gmail account; you will be presented with a button to open the softphone and make calls.