Google on Tuesday announced that it is integrating a voice and video plug-in for it Gmail Chat offering that lets you see or hear the friend with which you are chatting.
Users will need to download and install a plug-in, and have access to a Webcam for video purposes. Google has partnered with Logitech and Buy.com to offer discounts of up to 30 percent on several cameras, as well as free shipping, until November 30.
A $99.99 Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks, for example, is available for $69.99, while a $49 Logitech QuickCam Communicate MP is now $39.99.
“I’m a big user of Gmail chat. Being able to switch from email to chat as needed, all within the same app, is really great for productivity,” Justin Uberti, a Google software engineer, wrote in a blog post. “But people can only type so fast, and even with our new emoticons, there are still some things that just can’t be expressed in a chat message.”
Once installed, click the “video & more” link inside the chat window and select “start video chat” or “start voice chat.” The friend you are trying to contact will hear a ring and be given the option to accept or ignore the call. Users can then chat within the Gmail tab or pop it out into a separate window and expand or decrease its size.
Voice and video chat is available on Macs running Mac OS X v10.4 or later and PCs running Windows XP or higher. A link to download the offering will be rolled out to all Gmail and Google Apps accounts in the coming days, but it is also available directly at http://mail.google.com/videochat.
