Like many, I use Google services for email, voice, and messaging… it is pretty much my primary mode of communication in one form or another.  I’ve been very happy for years with my Google Voice + Gmail + Gtalk setup…. until today… when I realized that I could not dial into my conference bridge for my 8am meeting.

“Wait- there’s GOT to be a way to do this”, I thought to myself.

Nope. After digging around on the Google Voice forums, it was confirmed: You can no longer place outbound calls from Google Hangouts, Gmail, or the Chrome extension.

Google is moving real-time communication to their new “Hangouts” platform (or at least the look-and-feel). This means that Voice, SMS, chats, video calls will eventually all be contained in Hangouts, instead of having different interfaces all over the magical world of Google applications. This is a great thing… but it doesn’t seem like they are ready for prime-time.

The official response from Google:

“Today’s version of Hangouts doesn’t yet support outbound calls on the web and in the Chrome extension, but we do support inbound calls to your Google Voice number. We’re working hard on supporting both, and outbound/inbound calls will soon be available.”

I guess I’m just thankful they aren’t dropping Google Voice entirely, which is a valid concern these days when it comes to Google.