Outbound Calls and Google Voice Integration Coming to Hangouts

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Since the launch of Hangouts, many users have bemoaned the lack of outgoing call functionality that was popular in Gmail and the general lack of Google Voice integration. Never fear says Googler +Nikhyl Singhal - these features are on the way.

Here's what Nikhyl had to say on his Google+ post:

"1) 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. In the meantime, you can continue using Google Talk in Gmail.
2) Hangouts is designed to be the future of Google Voice, and making/receiving phone calls is just the beginning. Future versions of Hangouts will integrate Google Voice more seamlessly."

This is very welcome news, both for users that rely on Voice for their day to day communications as well as for anyone using Hangouts. Google has expressed the desire for Hangouts to be a seamless platform for any type of communication, from photos to video calls to emoji - so these integrations are a logical addition. We can't wait to see them released!

What do you think about these future Hangouts updates? Let us know in the comments!