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Google Home owners in the US and Canada get free phone calls

Google Home smart speaker now offers free voice calling in the US and Canada
Google Home smart speaker
While Amazon's Alexa can only provide device-to-device calls, Google's smart speaker is now able to call phone numbers for free. Unfortunately, this feature is only available for its users located in Canada or the US.
by Codrut Nistor, 2017/08/17
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Yesterday, Google announced that the Assistant app is capable of making phone calls from Google Home smart speakers as well. This capability was available previously only to those using Google Assistant on a mobile. On the other hand, Amazon Alexa only supports device-to-device calls at this time.

According to Google's official blog post about this update, "Google Home by default can call businesses and your Google Contacts." Sadly, the recipient will only see "No Caller ID" or "Unknown" for now, but this problem should be sorted out "by the end of the year." After that, the mobile number of the Google Home user who is calling will be displayed. However, Google Voice and Project Fi users can already choose to have their phone number visible to the other party by going to the Assistant settings section in the Google Home app.

At last, we should also mention that calls to 911 are not supported.

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Codrut Nistor, 2017-08-17 (Update: 2017-08-17)
Codrut Nistor
Codrut Nistor - News Editor
Although I have been writing about new software and hardware for almost a decade, I consider myself to be old school. I always enjoy listening to music on CD or tape instead of digital files and I will not even get into the touchscreen vs physical keys debate. However, I also enjoy new technology, as I now have the chance to take a look at the future every day. I joined the Notebookcheck crew back in 2013 and I have no plans to leave the ship anytime soon.