After first introducing phone call capabilities to Google Home back at Google I/O, Google says that the feature has now arrived and will rollout to Home units starting today and continuing over the coming week. That means you’ll be able to yell out, “Hey, Google, call Mom” and Google Home will do just that, for free.
The calling portion is actually a Google Assistant feature that is now baked into Google Home, in case you were wondering. It works like it does on your phone, only now you have access to the option through your home speaker assistant. Google says that you’ll be able to make free calls to your personal contacts list (might want to update that) and “millions” of businesses across the US and Canada.
The calls will display as “unknown” or “No Caller ID” when they show up on the other end. By the end of the year, Google says they’ll make it possible to show your mobile number. For Google Voice and Project Fi users, you can have your number shown right away.
UPDATE: We’ve put together a Google Home calling guide for you right here.
To learn more about setting up calling on Google Home, head over to Google Support.
So without Fi or voice 99.9% (nothing is ever 100% certain) of people I know are going to send me to voice mail instantly. Awesome……
This would be Wi-Fi calling? Similar to Skype and other online voice over internet calling? Would you be able to program it to receive calls coming in on your mobile phone? If so, I may very well need to get a Google Home now.
So many great features finally rolling out to the Home. I’m excited about version 2 mainly because by next year we’ll have a fully baked product. I like the direction they’re taking. For now… I’ll wait.
It’s exciting but I wonder if they are a little late to the race. Have an Echo and 3 dots in my house already. Hard to switch unless something major comes along. Also, Amazon keeps adding on to their ecosystem making it even harder.
I mean at this point Google is second to Amazon but it’s still a 2 horse race until Apple gets involved. So I think Google is fine. Me personally, I haven’t bought into Alexa because if AI is going to run my life I only trust Google to get it right in the long term.
“Sorry, I can’t make calls yet.”
“Sorry, I can’t do things Google Now can do… And we’re the same service”
Corp147s
“by the end of the year”
To show your mobile number as the caller ID on other ends.