Hangouts has finally swallowed up Google Voice and allows you to use Hangouts to make outgoing phone calls. Yes this also works with your data and not just Wifi. With the newest update to Google Hangouts there were actually a few feature additions including not only the voice calling already mentioned but also texting and voicemails making Hangouts your one stop app for Chat, SMS, and Calling.
There is a little setup required to use Hangouts as your phone to save mobile minutes but it is a rather easy process and only requires some settings changes and one more Google Play download.
Pre-requisite: Head over to Google Voice and signup for a Number if you don’t already have one. Visit Google Voice
Step 1: Update Google Hangouts to the Most Recent Version
The first thing you will need to do is make sure you have Hangouts updated to at least version 2.3. You can find the update in the Play Store under “My Apps” in case you don’t have it automatically updating. The first thing you will see after the update is a popup asking you to integrate Google Voice text messaging and voicemail. You will of course need to select “Turn it on”.
Step 2: Update Google Hangouts Settings
Now with Hangouts open you will need to go to the Settings and select SMS. Here you can do a few different things (its up to you how you want it all talking) like choosing your default number or Smart reply which will just respond using the number you last used to send an SMS to a contact. There will be a text bar when sending a message that will remind you of the choice you made. You can also select the contact method when sending a text message on the fly before you send it.
Step 3: Download the Google Hangouts Dialer
To activate calling you will have to first download the “Hangouts Dialer” from the Play Store. This will activate voice calling within Hangouts as well as give you a new dialer you can access directly if you are just making a phone call.
As we mentioned before the voice calling will work on Wifi in the event you don’t have network coverage although you can also make calls on mobile data just to simply save minutes. This service will also allow you to make and receive calls from Google Voice although receiving calls requires a little more setup that we will get into in another article. Let us know if you have any questions via comments below.