Google introducing free voice calls from Hangouts

[george]

Google introducing free voice calls from Hangouts

We know how important it is to keep in touch with friends and family, especially when they’re spread around the world. Hangouts already makes it easy to send a quick message, or start a group video chat. But sometimes it’s best to just call to say “I love you,” and with the new version of Hangouts you can.

Starting today you can make voice calls from Hangouts on Android, iOS and the web. It’s free to call other Hangouts users, it’s free to call numbers in the U.S. and Canada, and the international rates are really low. So keeping in touch is easier and more affordable than ever.

To get started on Android, just grab the new version of Hangouts (v2.3, rolling out over the next few days), then install the accompanying dialer to turn on voice calls. On iOS and the web, voice calls will be available the next time you open the app.

Whether it’s your sister in Paris, your best friend in Boston or Jenny at 867-5309, Hangouts lets you call the people you care about at little or no cost. So download the app and dial your loved ones today!

Source: Google

-- 2014-09-10

[CaptainTyphoon]

"This app is incompatible with all of your devices."

That is what Google Play says.

And, so I says "Why?"

Edited September 10, 2014 by CaptainTyphoon

[CaptainTyphoon]

"This app is incompatible with all of your devices."

That is what Google Play says.

And, so I says "Why?"

Here Is An Interesting Helpful Note for you, maybe:

When I tried to install google play hangout dialer, I got the incompatible error message.

But then I realized I was on Fire Fox,

So, my advice is to use Google Play on Chrome, which worked for me.

The reason I think is this:

I think this dialer must need to use Google Voice account.

And if you are in FireFox, then maybe you are not linked to Google Voice.

Just a guess, or maybe someone else has a better explaination.

At any rate, I have it installed on a Note 3, a Nexus 7, and a Samsung S3

All fine and dandy now.

[KittenKong]

Calls to UK mobiles quite cheap but calls to most land-line numbers (UK and international) appear to be a little more than I pay for SIP calls. And my SIP provider works with all standard SIP software on all platforms, which beats having to use yet another dialler.

Does this Google Voice/Hangout thing even work at all on a PC?

[shirtless]

Google simply cannot be trusted, everything you do on google is monitored.

[ozsamurai]

So they are doing what Skype has done for 10 years, how innovative! don't trust Google.

Oz

[inzman]

They are doing what, Skype, line, what's app and a dozen other apps do. But google spies for the us. So you decide which one you will use.

[granuaile]

According to their website it is not yet available (at least the web version) in all countries, with Thailand being in the list where it is not.... Hopefully soon, ...

https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/1267644?&ref_topic=3187124

[Benmart]

Google simply cannot be trusted, everything you do on google is monitored.

My bank account is monitored. My credit card is monitored. My travel is monitored. My passport is monitored. My spending habits are monitored. My phone is monitored.

My Web surfing is monitored. My driving is monitored. Life and death is monitored. Social media is monitored. This forum in monitored.

Google is the least of my concern.

Trust, caution and paranoia are often close neighbors. Sometimes they don't speak to one another, but remain in their own yards behind locked gates.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Benmart

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Google Play on my Android phone, using a U.S. IP address, still show the current Hangouts version as being only earlier 2.12 version -- as of 4:45 pm Thurs local time.

But the free phone calling feature to U.S. numbers does work right now from within Gmail on my PC using Firefox and a U.S. IP address. I haven't tried it yet to see if having a Thai IP changes that functionality.

Edited September 11, 2014 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[CaptainTyphoon]

According to their website it is not yet available (at least the web version) in all countries, with Thailand being in the list where it is not.... Hopefully soon, ...

https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/1267644?&ref_topic=3187124

But, I am in Thailand, and

I am using it now.

[bartender100]

LINE is much better IMHO and more widly used, if you set it up on your PC you can do face to face video chat for free using your PC webcam.

Edited September 11, 2014 by bartender100

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Looks like the Google Hangouts on my Android phone today updated to the new version 2.3.7.

And it has the capability to phone or video call for free to another Hangouts user here in Thailand who has the same app on their mobile phone or via GMail on their PC.

But I couldn't use it to call a regular phone number back in the U.S. And when I tried to install the Hangouts Dialer to my Android mobile either using my mobile phone or PC, even using a U.S. IP address on both, Google Play returned a message saying the dialer wasn't compatible with any of my devices, because, "This item cannot be installed in your device's country."

[Pib]

I have a Samsung S4 here in Thailand. Google Hangouts 2.3.7 is installed. I installed Hangouts Dialer no problem. I tried dialing a U.S. number, it started ringing, rang two times then stopped with a Hangouts Dialer message appearing which said "Add Credit, You need credit to make this call with Hangouts Dialer." Response offered was No Thanks or Add Credit." I selected No Thanks for now.

Tried dialing the number again...same thing happened.

I don't have VPN setup on my S4 but do on my Chinese tablet. May see if Hangouts Dialer will download to that tablet and then try it with my U.S. IP address VPN...or just add the VPN setup to my S4 which I've been meaning to do for a while.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Well, there's always another way available...and that's to side load the Dialer app:

http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/09/10/dedicated-hangouts-dialer-app-hits-play-store-phone-calling-functionality-google-voice-integration-requires-hangouts-v2-3/

http://www.mediafire.com/download/54d9wvf84coelt6/com.google.android.apps.hangoutsdialer-0.1.74972069.apk

So far, having mixed results with U.S. phone calls...sometimes working, sometimes not. But what a horrible ring tone on the mobile phone end.

PS - When I was dialing the U.S. using my Android mobile and the Hangouts Dialer, I didn't have any VPN turned on... Just my regular mobile phone service connected the the Internet with my home wifi ISP.

But, also, I didn't get any recordings about billing or credits required, which normally with Hangouts would only be for an international (non U.S. or Canada) call... Weird...

Edited September 12, 2014 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[CaptainTyphoon]

LINE is much better IMHO and more widly used, if you set it up on your PC you can do face to face video chat for free using your PC webcam.

OK, but then which has better audio and video?

Skype

Hangout

LINE

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The difference between using Hangouts with Google Voice and LINE is that the new version of Hangouts should allow free phone calls to regular U.S. and Canada landline and mobile phone numbers, whereas the LINE app, either on mobile phone or PC, only allows free calls to other users of LINE via those accounts.

I believe LINE has recently added a traditional VOIP phone calling service to call regular landline and mobile numbers, but it's a paid add-on feature.

In my experience, between Thailand and the U.S., Skype seems to have the most stable VOIP calling -- better than the free versions of LINE, Hangouts and a few other similar services.

Edited September 12, 2014 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[CaptainTyphoon]

The difference between using Hangouts with Google Voice and LINE is that the new version of Hangouts should allow free phone calls to regular U.S. and Canada landline and mobile phone numbers, whereas the LINE app, either on mobile phone or PC, only allows free calls to other users of LINE via those accounts.

I believe LINE has recently added a traditional VOIP phone calling service to call regular landline and mobile numbers, but it's a paid add-on feature.

In my experience, between Thailand and the U.S., Skype seems to have the most stable VOIP calling -- better than the free versions of LINE, Hangouts and a few other similar services.

This is correct regarding the relative quality of Skype, Hangouts, Google Voice, and maybe LINE.

BUT, as soon as Google Voice has audio quality equal to or better than SKYPE, to international areas such as Thailand, then I will DUMP Skype like the true crap that it is.

The service at Skype makes the service worse than a decent into the nether parts of ..............

You guessed it!

[Pib]

I have a Samsung S4 here in Thailand. Google Hangouts 2.3.7 is installed. I installed Hangouts Dialer no problem. I tried dialing a U.S. number, it started ringing, rang two times then stopped with a Hangouts Dialer message appearing which said "Add Credit, You need credit to make this call with Hangouts Dialer." Response offered was No Thanks or Add Credit." I selected No Thanks for now.

Tried dialing the number again...same thing happened.

I don't have VPN setup on my S4 but do on my Chinese tablet. May see if Hangouts Dialer will download to that tablet and then try it with my U.S. IP address VPN...or just add the VPN setup to my S4 which I've been meaning to do for a while.

The latest Hangouts and Hangouts Dialer loaded fine on my Chinese tablet....made one call to Hawaii no problem...just got a recording machine on the call (no one home) and the recording sounded a little broken indicating a low call quality...will play with it more this weekend.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

This morning, I installed the Hangouts dialer on my U.S. ICS tablet via sideloading. It wouldn't install/showed not available from Google Play.

The first time after I opened Google Hangouts, I got a in-app Hangouts message saying phone calling wasn't supported. So I closed the app and then connected to a U.S. VPN. After that, tried Hangouts again, and made a successful U.S. phone call.

Then disconnected the VPN, and tried Hangouts again, and still was able to make a U.S. phone call.

The one thing I noticed was, in manually dialing in Hangouts, the app seems, at least on my devices, to pre-populate the dialing number with the +66 Thai country prefix. So in order to get the correct U.S. number I want, I can't just type 1 XXX. Instead, I've got to type +1 XXX....

Meanwhile, I'm wondering why on my U.S. purchased tablet, I can't download the dialer app from the Google Play store and it says not available in the country of my device. But Pib can do so on his Chinese made tablet purchased here. Perhaps, it's because my Android tablet supports mobile telephone service and has a Thai SIM installed (it's not just a wifi device, but 3/4G also). So perhaps it's the presence of the Thai number SIM that's causing both my +1 XXX dialing problem and bar against getting the dialer from Google Play problem.

[Pib]

My Chinese tablet has a custom ROM installed which probably has U.S. country coding. I'm going to guess Hangouts is looking at the devices firmware to determine country coding and then determines whether a call can be made free or credit must be added....that's probably what's happening in my case where the Chinese tablet with custom ROM probably with U.S. country coding is reaching U.S. number no problem but my Samsung S4 bought in Thailand with original firmware/Thailand country coding is causing Hangout to say I must pay for the call by buying credits. I expect Google Play also looks at the country coding of the phone's firmware and maybe that determines whether the App can be installed from Google Play. But what I just said goes against what TG said above, so I really don't know. I still haven't setup VPN on my S4 yet to give it a try using a U.S. IP address.

[CaptainTyphoon]

My Chinese tablet has a custom ROM installed which probably has U.S. country coding. I'm going to guess Hangouts is looking at the devices firmware to determine country coding and then determines whether a call can be made free or credit must be added....that's probably what's happening in my case where the Chinese tablet with custom ROM probably with U.S. country coding is reaching U.S. number no problem but my Samsung S4 bought in Thailand with original firmware/Thailand country coding is causing Hangout to say I must pay for the call by buying credits. I expect Google Play also looks at the country coding of the phone's firmware and maybe that determines whether the App can be installed from Google Play. But what I just said goes against what TG said above, so I really don't know. I still haven't setup VPN on my S4 yet to give it a try using a U.S. IP address.

I believe you are wrong.

Google does not go by "firmware".

Google delivers Google Voice based on where you are when you first install the GV software.

Then, wherever you go, you can use Google Voice.

They don't care if you bought your phone in Greenland or Antarctica.

[RichCor]

I sideloaded the two apk files yesterday. It refused to give me access to the dialer, even after resetting the phone.

I then started Hola (a VPN) set to the United States and it instantly gave me access to the dialer. Once I killed the VPN I could also access the dialer while connected locally.

Don't know why it was geo-blocked initially. My voice account was set up in the US and I would expect to access it through their apps internationally.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The first time after I opened Google Hangouts, I got a in-app Hangouts message saying phone calling wasn't supported. So I closed the app and then connected to a U.S. VPN. After that, tried Hangouts again, and made a successful U.S. phone call.

That's what it took to get it to work in my case as well...as I had noted here above.

On the broader point, I also think it's irrelevant where one's device originated, in terms of being able to access Google's U.S. oriented services.

On the other hand, it does seem to matter where one's Google account is based (what country) and apparently also what country SIM card is being used for those devices with one.

Google tends to be a bit schizo about these kinds of things...

Re using the new version of Hangouts, the app still works with a Thai SIM card device, provided there's at least an initial U.S. IP provided to at least get the app set up initially.

But, even with my U.S.-based Google account, I couldn't get the Hangouts dialer to show up in my Google Play store, either on the web or my devices, regardless if the IP country being used, apparently because both devices were registered as having Thai SIMs installed.

[Pib]

My Chinese tablet has a custom ROM installed which probably has U.S. country coding. I'm going to guess Hangouts is looking at the devices firmware to determine country coding and then determines whether a call can be made free or credit must be added....that's probably what's happening in my case where the Chinese tablet with custom ROM probably with U.S. country coding is reaching U.S. number no problem but my Samsung S4 bought in Thailand with original firmware/Thailand country coding is causing Hangout to say I must pay for the call by buying credits. I expect Google Play also looks at the country coding of the phone's firmware and maybe that determines whether the App can be installed from Google Play. But what I just said goes against what TG said above, so I really don't know. I still haven't setup VPN on my S4 yet to give it a try using a U.S. IP address.

I believe you are wrong.

Google does not go by "firmware".

Google delivers Google Voice based on where you are when you first install the GV software.

Then, wherever you go, you can use Google Voice.

They don't care if you bought your phone in Greenland or Antarctica.

Not sure where you first install is the answer why either, because both Hangouts and Hangouts Dialer where installed on my two different devices I mentioned above using the same Google account and installed in Thailand....the apps installed fine on both devices but when using the S4 device to call the U.S. Hangouts won't complete the call unless I Add Credits (I.e., pay) whether on home Wifi or 3G connection and the other Chinese Wifi-only tablet device completes the call with no Add Credits required. Google is probably evaluating several things on each device to determine if the app can be installed and/or whether google Hangouts will allow a free call or require the Adding of Credits. I still need to try the VPN approach on my S4, both to install Google Dialer and using the Dialer. Edited September 15, 2014 by Pib

[bubba]

Hangouts installs and works fine on iOS using a Thai SIM card from a Thai IP address, as is the case with everyone else using iOS here. I use it frequently for the free calls to USA and the call quality is excellent. Better than Skype, and of course better than normal IDD. That said, I also have a Sony Android phone and never could get it installed and working on that phone.

Sort of ironic that Hangouts works flawlessly with iOS, yes so many Android users report problems with it, considering that Google makes Android.

[Pib]

I just tried using Hangouts on my S4 "without" my DTAC Sim card installed and the call to the U.S. occurred fine without asking for addition of credits. Connection via home Wifi.

I then uninstalled Hangouts Dialer and reinstalled with the Sim still not installed to see if install without a Thai Sim installed would make a dialing difference. After installing and putting the Sim back in I tried the U.S. call again and it wouldn't go through (I.e., it asked for adding of credits) whether on home Wifi or 3G connection.

So in "my case" it seems Google is sensing the Thai Sim card whether on a home Wifi connection or DTAC 3G connection, then says I'm in Thailand and then says I must pay to complete the call. Yes I know my Wifi IP address would also appear as in Thailand because I'm not using any VPN.

Yeah, me thinks Google evaluates several factors to determine if the Dialer will install and how it works on your particular device.

[balo]

I would not trust google at all, they probably make recordings of all your phone calls and will use it against you when all hell breaks lose.

[Pib]

I just tried using Hangouts on my S4 "without" my DTAC Sim card installed and the call to the U.S. occurred fine without asking for addition of credits. Connection via home Wifi.

I then uninstalled Hangouts Dialer and reinstalled with the Sim still not installed to see if install without a Thai Sim installed would make a dialing difference. After installing and putting the Sim back in I tried the U.S. call again and it wouldn't go through (I.e., it asked for adding of credits) whether on home Wifi or 3G connection.

So in "my case" it seems Google is sensing the Thai Sim card whether on a home Wifi connection or DTAC 3G connection, then says I'm in Thailand and then says I must pay to complete the call. Yes I know my Wifi IP address would also appear as in Thailand because I'm not using any VPN.

Yeah, me thinks Google evaluates several factors to determine if the Dialer will install and how it works on your particular device.

Just added VPN setup to my phone where I get a U.S. IP address. Tried again...still same problem...the call stops after couple of rings and says I need to add credits, whether trying via a home Wifi or DTAC 3G. I then uninstalled Hangouts (actually you can only uninstall all the updates back to the basic Hangouts factory version on my S4) and Hangouts Dialer (which can be completely uninstalled) and then reinstalled/updated while on the U.S. IP address VPN connection. Tried dialing a U.S. number again while still on VPN IP address connection and got the same response...stops ringing after two rings and a Add Credits message pops up.

OK, turn the phone off, remove the DTAC Sim, tried calling that U.S. number again via VPN and the call goes through.

Now before putting the Sim back in and trying with the Sim in I uninstall and reinstall Hangouts and Hangouts Dialer while on a U.S. IP address VPN connection.

I now put the DTAC Sim back in, make a U.S. IP address VPN connection and try again...once again after a couple of rings the call stops and asks for credits to be added.

So, installing the Hangout/Hangouts Dialer using an U.S. IP address "or" Thai IP address makes no difference in my situation for my Samsung S4...nor trying to make a call with or without a VPN connection makes a difference "as long as the DTAC Sim is in the phone." Now remove that Sim and I can call without being asked to add credits.

In "my case" Google is apparently sensing the DTAC Sim and is therefore saying you are probably in Thailand regardless of the IP address you are currently using (i.e., Thailand or U.S.) so you gotta pay for the call. But on my Chinese tablet which is Wifi only, there is no Sim to be sensed as I only connect via home Wifi. Seems just having a Thai IP address is not a factor, but combined other things like Sim, firmware, etc., which Google is probably evaluating to determine whether the call to the U.S. number will be free or you must pay. But these assumptions are just based on my testing on my S4 phone....other folks will no doubt have different results.

[niebla]

Works great on Macos, windows and linux using chrome and firefox.

The android app loaded from the app store in Thailand, (3BB) does not appear to be able to make and receive calls although the desktop/browser does. Google lists Thailand as a location that cannot make or receive calls using the app.

Too bad. Great app for people from the US and Canada and users who need free unlimited calling and receiving to and from the continental US and Canada, and voice mail.

It may be possible with a VPN but I will not do this as it may be unlawful.

Edited April 28, 2016 by niebla