Voice Chatting

Tired of typing? Google Talk allows you to carry on two-way voice chats. Click Call in any chat window to begin a new voice chat. Both you and your friend must have the right audio equipment properly installed to use this feature.

Tip 

Headsets equipped with a microphone work best for voice chatting. Most headset microphones are directional, eliminating much of the background noise. The earphones make your conversations easier to understand and may keep your audio chats a little more private.

Your Internet connection speed may affect the quality of your voice communications. This feature works with any connection speed but works best over DSL or faster connections.

To initiate a call, click Call, either in the Chat window or in the pop-up that appears when you mouse over a friend’s name. As soon as your friend answers, your voice communication begins. An indicator, like the one shown in Figure 20.5 appears, which shows your voice levels and allows you to end the call by clicking End Call.

Figure 20.5: See your voice levels, end the call, or send files and e-mail messages.

You can have many voice calls connected at one time, but only one may be active. The other calls are put on hold. You cannot use this feature to access the normal telephone network, and therefore cannot use it to make emergency calls, unless it’s to tell your friend that pizza has suddenly become an emergency and to hurry over with some.