Google Voice calls Australia

Google has finally launched some of its Voice features in Australia — although North American customers still get the cream of the service's crop.

(Credit: Google/CBSi)

Gmail users in Australia and around the world can now download a plug-in to use Google Voice features to make landline and mobile calls from within their Gmail account.

Users can also use video chat from within Gmail, rendering additional video and text chat programs like Skype effectively redundant — especially since the Google Voice call rates are very competitive.

(Credit: Google)

Calls to landlines within Australia are priced at US$0.02 per minute, and calls to mobiles US$0.14 per minute, compared to AU$0.03 per minute for landline calls via Skype and AU$0.27 per minute for mobile calls.

Credit can be purchased from the Google Voice pop-up in Gmail.

However, the rest of the world still misses out on those amazing-sounding features that made Google Voice sound so enticing when the service launched a year ago: free calls and a Google phone number.

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This is old news - the feature has been available around the time Apple approved the iOS app. I am still wondering why hasn't Google Voice landed on our shores yet? We need it badly!
Posted by A Google User
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I've been looking forward to this for so long!
Just one query, has anyone been able to get this to work with the Google Voice app for Android?

I've been trying but it continues to say that my phone number cannot be verified.

Can anyone confirm if the Android app too is a US only feature?
Posted by AndrewN5
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not in Aus...can't even get it to work on google talk!
Posted by sick of lack of competitive prices
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I wouldn't say Skype is "effectively redundant" with Google Voice entering Australia. There's quite a value to having the Skype native client available across many platforms, compared to doing it all through your web browser.

I know there is Google Talk for Windows, but there's no native client for other OSes like Mac OS X or Linux, and while there's Google Voice for iPhone, it's still only available in the US iTunes Store...
Posted by DanW1
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