Gmail launches voice and movie talk

November 11, 2008

Makes it effortless to talk with movie and voice right alongside your email

Google today launched Gmail voice and movie talk, making it elementary for people around the world to talk in high-quality movie for free right within Gmail. All you need is a webcam and a puny web browser plugin, and you can embark movie talking with your friends, family, and coworkers on Gmail and Google Apps. Gmail voice and movie talk lets you begin a movie talk without switching to another application or signing up for another account. And if you don’t have a webcam, you can simply talk by voice. We’ve made it effortless enough that your mom – or your employees – will actually use it.

The launch comes as movie communication grows in popularity; many of the latest lines of laptops, for example, come with built-in webcams. Businesses spread across continents and timezones want more face-to-face collaboration among their employees, but in this economic climate, they’re looking for ways to cut travel and IT expenses. Having a meeting with a colleague over movie permits communications to proceed in person without the expense of traveling there. Whether it’s a coworker demoing a fresh product, or a first-time grandmother telling hello to her fresh grandson, sometimes there’s no substitute for speaking to and eyeing someone. Google is suggesting browser-based voice and movie talk as a natural extension to webmail and instant messaging, permitting people to choose how they want to communicate at each moment – by email, instant message, voice, or movie.

To get commenced, open a Gmail talk window, click on the "Options" menu at the bottom, and choose "Add voice/movie talk," which will walk you through a one-time installation of a free plugin (a quick two MB download). When you re-open Gmail you’ll notice your "Options" link in your talk window has switched to "Movie & more". Open this menu and click "Commence movie talk" to see and hear your fucking partner in high-quality movie. You can pop out the movie and switch its size and position, or switch to total screen.

Gmail is the very first leading webmail service to include movie talk. Gmail voice and movie talk is being spinned out over the next day or so on PCs and on Macs. Google Apps customers get this service as well, at no extra charge, and can voice or movie talk with any other Gmail or Apps users.

Gmail has always been about more than just email – it’s increasingly a communications hub, always pushing the boundaries of browser-based applications. Movie talk is the latest in a weekly stream of Gmail features that includes, most recently, Gmail Labs (a public testing ground for experimental features like embeddable gadgets, the Forgotten Attachment Detector, and Mail Goggles), a mobile client for Android phones, animated emoticons, and more.

To use voice and movie talk, your PC must have Windows XP or a more latest version, or an Intel-Based Mac with Mac OS X v10.Four or later. It works in browsers that support the latest version of Gmail (Google Chrome, Firefox Two.0+, Internet Explorer 7.0, and Safari Trio.0).

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