Google will be rolling out a new Call phone feature to U.S.- based Gmail users over the next few days! The Call phone button is expected to show up in your chat list shortly. But first, you will need to install the voice and video plug-in from HERE if you haven’t already done so.

This call feature functions like Skype and Yahoo! Voice, but is similar to Google Voice by not charging a fee to connect. This is probably what will give this feature an edge over its competitors.

This new add-on features a dialing pad that pops out after clicking “Call phone” located at the top of your chat list. Alternatively, you can just enter your contact’s name to place a call – saving you the extra step of checking your Android device for contact information prior to making a call.

The Google Voice integration is what interests me the most. If you have a Google Voice phone number, you can configure your settings to allow calls made from Gmail to display this number as the outbound caller ID. What’s even cooler is that you can now receive calls made to your Google voice number right within Gmail!

According to Google:

“Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at our very low rates. We worked hard to make these rates really cheap with calls to the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan—and many more countries—for as little as $0.02 per minute.”

Unfortunately this feature is currently not yet available to non-U.S. based users or Google Apps for school or business users.

I am eager to try this feature out. I have re-installed the voice chat plug-in hoping to see the Call phone button appear but I guess I will just have to wait. Anyone seen the link yet?

For more information, click HERE

Source: Google Blog