Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Wither Google Talk?

I used to be able to make free voice calls to regular phone numbers, land or cell.  Talk has been retired and I only get Voice, which simply let's me send a number to be dialed and paid for by a real phone service, in my case Verizon Wireless.

It's nice to be able to look up a number and have Google dial it for me.  Much nicer was Google presenting two, not one, phone icons in my address book with the option of having Google make the call for free.

I may have to go back to Skype and pay about $38 a year for free calls to regular numbers.

Searching on "Google Talk" yields a link to google.com/talk (chat with family and friends), which re-directs me to google.com/hangouts, which states: "You can upgrade Chat to Hangouts by clicking on your photo icon in Gmail's chat list."  Did I inadvertently do that and lose the free calling? 

Is there a way to make free voice calls to regular phone numbers with Google+ Hangouts?