The future of voice phone service
I knew you could make phone calls in gmail for a while now, but due to various known issues it never worked for me. Recently I've been going over my cell-phone minutes thanks to long conference calls so I decided to give it one more try. After some investigating I found that if you delete the plugin then install this msi mentioned here, it works. Free phone calls, yay!
Yesterday my trusty Motorola Droid died. It got wet while I was rafting/tubing down the Chattahoochee (I should have left it in the car, I know). My voicemail is handled by Google Voice so I changed the greeting to "My phone is dead, leave a message and I'll get back to you". I was able to record that message through gmail so... wait... I can receive calls in gmail? Somehow I didn't know about this. Calls to your Google Voice number can be forwared to phones and Google chat:
That means my laptop is a phone; a free phone (at least until the end of the year). I just need to get everyone to start using my Google Voice number (678-HEY-SIMS). The reason I haven't fully committed to my GV number yet is because I don't totally trust it. I have experienced a noticeable delay during some calls (it may just be calls initiated from the web & sent to my phone, not sure).
My guess is that next year they will expand this to Android and other mobile devices, eventually shifting everyone to data-only wireless plans (and the end of home landlines & voip providers). Of course Skype/Microsoft will follow with free Skype-in numbers that integrate with Windows & Xbox devices. Whoever controls your free phone service will know who you call and what you talk about, all neatly wrapped in ads and offers.
It's a shame that, even with free phone service, overall we probably won't save any money now that wireless providers are charging more for data.
