Last year, Google announced a Gmail feature that would let users in the U.S. make and receive phone calls. Today, the company announced that it is available outside the U.S. in 38 languages.
“You can now buy calling credit in your choice of four currencies (Euros, British pounds, Canadian dollars or U.S. dollars) and there are no connection fees, so you only pay for the time you talk,” says Gmail Team Product Manager Pierre Lebeau.
Google is also reducing calling rates to over 150 places. “For example, it’s now only $0.10 (or €0.08) per minute to call mobile phones in the U.K., France or Germany (landlines are $0.02/min), $0.15/minute to call mobile phones in Mexico and $0.02/min to call any phone number in China and India,” said Lebeau.
“Calls to the U.S. or Canada placed within those countries will continue to be free at least for the rest of 2011. Calls to the U.S. or Canada placed from outside these countries will be charged $0.01 per minute (or €0.01, £0.01, C$0.01 per minute),” he says.
All the rates can be found here.
Google says it’s rolling the feature out over the next several days. Users will see a green phone icon at the top of their chat list when it is available. A voice and video plug-in is required.
The feature works in Google Apps as well, but the domain admin has to have Google Voice and Google Checkout enabled.