Call Recording in Gmail Now Available for More Users
Back in August, Google enhanced Gmail’s chat abilities by integrating Google Voice and giving Gmail users the option to make calls to landline and mobile phones from within Gmail. Windows and Linux users who get the voice and video plugin for Gmail can voice and video chat via Gmail and as of August they can also call phones in the US and Canada for free and place cheap international calls.
About a week after the launch Gmail’s enhanced chat capabilities, the Google Voice Team shared its tips on how to make the most of calling in Gmail. Call recording was among those tips. The thing is that not all Gmail users saw the call recording option. Reports on the web have it that the recording option has been more widely rolled out and more people are seeing it.
Here’s how call recording works. To start recording an incoming phone call (doesn’t work with outgoing calls, or calls that are routed directly from one Gmail contact to another without using Google Voice), simply press 4 on the dial pad. An audio notification (“this call is now being recorded”) that the call is being recorded will be played to you and to the person on the other end of the line. Press 4 again or hang up to stop the recording (a “call recording off” notification will be played).
All recordings will be saved in the Google Voice Inbox, in the “recordings” tab of your Google Voice account. You can download the recordings off the web and onto your computer as MP3s.
In related news, last week Mountain View-based search engine giant Google announced the release of the native Google Voice app. This means you can forget about the Google Voice HTML5 web app and switch to the native app. You can get the app straight from the App Store (here’s a link) and use it on your iPhone as long as it’s powered by iOS 3.1 or newer. To use the app you will of course need a valid Google Voice account (set one up here).
About a week after the launch Gmail’s enhanced chat capabilities, the Google Voice Team shared its tips on how to make the most of calling in Gmail. Call recording was among those tips. The thing is that not all Gmail users saw the call recording option. Reports on the web have it that the recording option has been more widely rolled out and more people are seeing it.
Here’s how call recording works. To start recording an incoming phone call (doesn’t work with outgoing calls, or calls that are routed directly from one Gmail contact to another without using Google Voice), simply press 4 on the dial pad. An audio notification (“this call is now being recorded”) that the call is being recorded will be played to you and to the person on the other end of the line. Press 4 again or hang up to stop the recording (a “call recording off” notification will be played).
All recordings will be saved in the Google Voice Inbox, in the “recordings” tab of your Google Voice account. You can download the recordings off the web and onto your computer as MP3s.
In related news, last week Mountain View-based search engine giant Google announced the release of the native Google Voice app. This means you can forget about the Google Voice HTML5 web app and switch to the native app. You can get the app straight from the App Store (here’s a link) and use it on your iPhone as long as it’s powered by iOS 3.1 or newer. To use the app you will of course need a valid Google Voice account (set one up here).
