All those who have acquired a Gmail account know how useful this email client provided by Google is, which offers an infinity of services integrated into it and of which we had talked on one occasion. We are not only referring to gTalk but also to the possibility of use our account to make voice or video calls to different parts of the world at a really cheap price.
If you were not aware of this feature that Google offers you with your Gmail account, below we will mention the steps you should follow to be able to carry out this type of activity (voice or video calls) to different parts of the world and at a price considerably low compared to what the different telephone operators could currently charge.
Basic aspects to take into account when using this Gmail service
The first thing you should consider is the value that you will have to pay for use this voice and video call service using your Gmail account; To do this, we recommend that you review the small box that we have placed at the bottom although, only a few countries are shown there as an example. If you want to have a more exact reference to different parts of the globe, then you should go to this link.
The first image that we have placed in the upper part is the one that you will find at the click this link; from it, you must select the blue button where it is recommended "Install voice and video chat", which will bring up a download window for this tool.
While the download is taking place, you will immediately jump to another window where new users of this service are welcomed by Google. There you will only find a small indication about the download, that is, what you should do in said pop-up window, explore the place where you made the download and then have to run it.
After a moment, a new window will appear in which the user is informed that the installation has concluded successfully.
Basically that is the only thing we have to do in order to start use the Google service to make calls both voice and video, through a simple and easy chat or through a phone number.
A small aspect worth taking into account is that this service (Hangouts) provided by Google or Gmail works natively in Google Chrome browser, so if you want to use it you would have to previously open a session in this Internet browser. If you do it, you will be able to admire that towards the top right of this browser a small green icon appears that simulates the shape of a chat.
Clicking on said and how our Hangouts will open as long as we have previously logged in against Gmail as we suggested above.
In the lower right part of our desktop (in this case we have used Windows 8.1) it will be shown the window with all the contacts that we have added to our lists. There we just have to choose one of them to start a conversation.
In the small gear wheel that are located towards the upper right part of this window there are a few other options; Among them, you could choose the one that suggests making a phone call, which will immediately show a small message that says «load balance«.
The best thing is to try to have our contacts added to the list of the Gmail account, with the aim of being able to use only chat and video conference camera to make a free talk; If you click on this button, you will jump to another window, where you must credit a minimum balance of 10 dollars to activate the service in order to make phone calls to a mobile phone or a conventional one. There you will have the possibility to configure certain parameters (for example, avoid making calls with a balance of less than two dollars).
The procedure is relatively very easy and simple to be executed, concluding it with a number that Google will provide you so that you can have it as a telephone identification, which you can share with your contacts and friends so that later, they can also call you at same using their respective Gmail accounts as we have suggested in this article.