A new Google video and voice communication service that allows users to access high-quality voice and video chats with friends and family anywhere in the world has been rolled out by the search Company.
Gmail voice and video chat works within the Google browser eliminating the need to switch to another window or the running of another program.
Gmail is the first lwebmail service to include video chat, which offers a cost-effective and way of keeping in touch with family and friends. All that’s needed is a webcam and small browser plugin, and you can start video chatting with your friends, family, and colleagues in Gmail. If you don’t have a webcam, you can simply chat by voice.
“Sometimes there’s no substitute for speaking to and seeing someone, and in tighter economic times, an online video or voice chat is a cost-effective option,” says Alan Noble, Google’s Head of Engineering for Australia and New Zealand. “If a smiley face and a ‘lol’ aren’t getting your message across, with a simple click you can now share your real meaning face-to-face over a video connection.”
Google is offering browser-based voice and video chat as a natural extension to webmail and instant messaging, allowing people to choose how they want to communicate at each moment. The launch comes as video communication grows in popularity; many of the latest laptops, for example, come with built-in webcams.
Today’s announcement is the latest in a range of innovative new Gmail features, many of which have sprung from Gmail’s public testing ground for experimental features, Gmail Labs (available under ‘Settings’ in your Gmail account). Recently launched features include:
· Canned responses, to help lazy emailers respond automatically to common messages;
· Forgotten attachment detector, for those occasions when you forget to attach a file to your email;
· Mail Goggles, which asks you to solve a few simple math problems before your email will be sent.
Tens of millions of people around the world use Gmail every day. Australian web users, from school students to professionals, use Gmail as more than just a webmail service – it’s a fast and responsive communications hub, available where and when you want it (with an uptime of over 99.9 percent of the time in the past year). It’s integrated with Google Apps like Google Calendar and Google Docs.
Using Gmail voice and video chat:
To get started, open a Gmail chat window, click on the “Options” menu at the bottom, and choose “Add voice/video chat,” which will walk you through a one-time installation of a free plugin (a quick 2 MB download). When you re-open Gmail you’ll notice your “Options” link in your chat window has changed to “Video & more”. Open this menu and click “Start video chat” to see and hear your conversation partner in high-quality video. You can pop out the video and change its size and position, or switch to full screen. If you don’t have a webcam, you can simply chat by voice.
Gmail voice and video chat is being rolled out globally over the next day or so in all 50 languages supported by Gmail, on PCs and on Macs. Google Apps customers get this service as well, at no extra charge, and can video chat with any other Gmail or Apps users.
To use voice and video chat, your PC must have Windows XP or a more recent version, or an Intel-Based Mac with Mac OS X v10.4 or later. It works in all browsers that support the latest version of Gmail (Google Chrome, Firefox 2.0+, Internet Explorer 7.0, and Safari 3.0).
To get started, visit http://mail.google.com/videochat.
