Here’s the big news for residents of US and Canada! Your Google Home device now gets you free phone (voice) calls – a long-awaited feature is now active for people living in US and Canada. You can call people in your contacts and local businesses using Ok Google command. This phone calling gives an upper edge to Google Home over Amazon Alexa Calling Services. While the latter evoked Echo calling by allowing Echo users to connect for free, the former provides an added advantage of ‘hands-free calling’ to anybody living in the US and Canada.
How do you make a call?
Voice calling is absolutely free to your local contacts in the US and Canada. Early this year when Google announced the hands-free calling feature to be launched soon at its I/O 2017 event, the experts gave a sneak peek on how the calls will be made. They mentioned that all you need to do would be ask Google to call your contact and you’ll get connected.
Coming soon to #GoogleHome: hands-free calling. Call businesses, friends and family in the 🇺🇸 and 🇨🇦, even if you can’t reach your 📱 #io17 pic.twitter.com/hvG6wtS9qf
— Google (@Google) May 17, 2017
Now, when it’s set to launch, we know it better on how to make a call. You can connect with anyone in your contacts and local businesses living in the US or the UK (Canada). The caller needs to say, ‘Ok Google, Call (Name of the recipient).’ This recipient’s number needs to be a saved contact in your Google Contact list, for the Home device to recognize the right contact and make the right call. One who are not customary saying Ok Google can say ‘Hey Google.’
As Google Home is compatible with other applications of Google, if you’re using some other app, ensure that the contacts are saved on Google Cloud. You need to sync your contact list with the Google account.
Google also mentioned that these calls are not related to your smartphone but entirely works over Wi-Fi. Also, an important thing to note here that this only supports outgoing calls; you can’t receive any calls from your contact via this device. Keep your smartphones reserved for that.
That said, you can’t call someone else’s Google Home because of the same reason that nobody can actually receive voice calls using the Home device.
Typically, if you’re a Google Voice or Project Fi user, you can integrate your phone number with the Google Home device. This will allow your contacts (recipient) to see your number whenever you make a call. Else, there won’t be any number shown on their phones; it will be an ‘unknown’ call.
Who can you call?
This voice calling feature by Google Home only allows a phone call to landline and mobile numbers in the US and Canada. It doesn’t support calls to emergency numbers like 911 or 1-900.
Hands-free-calling through Google Home is yet to arrive in France, Germany, Australia and the UK.
More information on Google Home hands-free calling
For more information on Google Home free voice calling, read it here. People in the UK can call 0800 026 1217 and that in the US can connect on 1-855-971-9121 to speak to Google Home support specialist for any query or having detailed information related to hands-free calling.