Google offering first minute free calling to 25 countries through 2014
Normally making a call to a country abroad via Google Hangouts would have you cough up coin, but Google’s making it a bit cheaper for the duration of 2014. If, for whatever reason, you only want to talk to someone in another country for one minute you can get that phone call for absolutely free. After the first minute you will be charged for each consecutive minute for that phone call. You can call as many different times as you like, though, so don’t feel the need to be judicious about dialing it up a few times.
We’re not sure why you’d want to talk to someone for just one minute. Perhaps there’s a family emergency and you need the most reliable way to reach them — place that call, then tell the other person to hop onto Hangouts for a free Hangouts-to-Hangouts voice or video call to continue the conversation. The catch is that this will only work for 25 countries, and here’s the full list of them:
- Australia
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Canada: Most calls will be free. A few destinations will cost USD 1 cent per minute after the first minute. The 1-cent rate may vary depending on the local currency. You can look up the cost through the calling credit page for your Google account.
- China
- Dominican Republic
- France
- Germany
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Peru
- Poland
- Russia
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- United States: Most calls will be free. A few destinations will cost USD 1 cent per minute after the first minute. The 1-cent rate may vary depending on the local currency. You can look up the cost through the calling credit page for your Google Account.
You’ll have to add Google calling credit to your account before being eligible for free calling, mainly so that Google can charge you should you creep over that first minute mark. Google also reserves the right to curb your free calling if they feel you’re trying to abuse it, though, so don’t expect to be able to make 100 1-minute calls per day. (And, really, who’d want to put up with that headache, anyway?)
Don’t forget that you’ll need both the Hangouts and Hangouts Dialer apps for Android in order to place calls from your phone. You can grab them here and here, respectively. Let us know if you’ll be taking advantage of this for whatever reason, and hit the source link for help on getting started with calling in Hangouts if you’re not already familiar.
[via Google]