Google Voice - what is it?

The internet giant Google now offers countless products, including voice. Voice is a free telecommunications service from Google. However, Voice goes far beyond the functionality of ordinary landline telephony.

Google Voice - the VoIP service of the future

You have to be activated for Voice. You will then receive a landline number with which you can make calls to landlines and mobile phones worldwide. The advantages of Voice are:

• You don't need a phone. Simply use your internet connection and a microphone to make calls.
• Anywhere in the world at very affordable prices.
• You automatically install a video chat plug-in on the PC and thus see your counterpart during the call.

Google Voice restricted in Germany and Europe

• Unfortunately, Google Voice is currently only partially activated in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. For example, you can currently only use Voice in the form of the telephony function in Gmail, which works on both desktop and mobile browsers. To do this, you need to top up your credit.
• The Android and iOS app is not yet officially available in Germany.
• The full functionality of the full Google Voice service is only available in the United States and Canada. However, a launch of Google Voice in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and other European countries should not take too long.

This is how Google Voice works

You will be provided with a landline phone number for all end devices. The following is then possible with the service:

• With a call, you can reach both the cell phone, VoIP phone and the landline at the same time via automatic forwarding.
• At selected times, you can only ring certain connections.
• Calls can be forwarded directly to an answering machine or certain numbers can be blocked completely.
• The voice mailbox is coupled with a voice recognition, which displays the messages left as text in the inbox.
• Conversations can be automatically recorded (however, there are problems with the German data protection laws).

You can download the Google Voice and Video Chat plug-in in our download area.