US users of Gmail will be getting a new feature in their inbox, the ability to make and receive calls right inside of Gmail. This seems like a perfectly predictable expansion of the Google Voice service and chat/video chat already offered within Gmail. Google seems to think it’s a natural evolution of society going by their promo YouTube vid:
The change was announced earlier today and will be rolling out over the next few days. Calls to US and Canada are free for the rest of the year and other countries are charged a low rate.
The system features integration with Google Voice that helps make the system more useful than just the quick out-going call.
It hasn’t shown up in my Gmail account yet, so I’ll just have to wait a few days before I can try it out myself. For more information, visit gmail.com/call.