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Free Canadian Calls On Google Voice

By Emma Kelly, 14 years ago

Did you know that Gmail recently launched a new VOIP (voice over IP) service?

Well, they did! It's called Google Voice. And now you know.

Click here for more info @ Google Voice

And here's the juicy bit - you can use it to call phones in the US and Canada for free!!! You can call other countries as well, but there are international charges. I usually use Skype but I might price compare with the new rates from Google, because I make a few international calls to rellies overseas.

The technical requirements are the following: Requires Windows XP+ / Mac OS X 10.4+ / Linux. I think most of us are using Windows XP or above nowadays.

There is also a free guide to Gmail which you can download here.

Thanks to ytang3!

Comments

SavingMentor
Actually Anna, Google Voice isn't all that new of a service. It all started as GrandCentral back in 2005 and then Google acquired the service in 2007 and eventually turned it into Google Voice in early 2009. However, they did just recently integrate it into Gmail. It is a great service indeed and I believe that Goog411, Google's free 411 service, uses the same technology to call people and businesses it finds finds for you. 1-800-GOOG-411 The only problem I've noticed with the service is that there is a noticeable delay when talking to other people. I used to use it in conjunction with my cell phone (you can get special dialers that will route your calls through Google Voice and now many phones have a dedicated app for it). I have since switched to Skype and I now use it for most of my calls because it has almost no delay and only costs $3 a month. I haven't used it in at least 6 months though, so the call quality might have improved since then. It might also be better in major cities like Toronto. I'm a bit off the beaten path.
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Ravi S.
Google voice is not yet available in Canada. This is google voice chat, there is a significant difference between the two products. Google voice is a total game changer. -Ravi Shanghavi
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saad M.
and it will be free til the end of the year, for the international rates, i checked and its cheaper then skype
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SavingMentor
@Ravi Shanghavi I don't know if they are taking new sign ups in Canada or not, but I definitely have an active Google Voice account right now that I can use anytime. Of course, my telephone number is a USA based New York number, but I can make outgoing calls with that anywhere in the USA and Canada just fine. People can call me too, they just have to dial a New York number. Not good for folks in my city ... but for most others it wouldn't matter. I just use my cell phone directly for incoming calls though. I just checked and my GrandCentral e-mail was dated February 2008, so I've had it for 2.5 years.
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laura
my mom just signed up for this over the past weekend and called me on it and it sounded fine, no delays. i asked if she needed to put in a cc number for it and she didn't. but the funny part was she didn't realize that she needed a microphone and was just talking to the computer when she was calling me and finally had to call me on her land line cuz i couldn't hear her!
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- Anna
  LOL sounds like my mom too!
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John
For anyone who's having trouble using this feature in Gmail, make sure that your language settings are set to US English. I had mine set to UK English (the closest I could get to Canadian), and as soon as I switched, the little "Call Phone" link showed up under my name in the Chat sidebar. It works like a charm!
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