Grab the new Hangouts APK and enable phone dialing now
We’ve been reporting on some of the Google Hangout Google Voice integration stuff today, there are now two components for download available now which will get you quite a bit closer to complete Google Voice integration in Hangouts. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be the complete and final steps, but it’s close.
There are three elements to the complete Google Voice integration, and we can get you two of them right here. The first is Google Hangouts 2.3. You can download it if you’re lucky officially here – scroll down though and check to see what the version number displays – if it’s 2.1.2 listed you’ll need to download it from another source. The APK from that second link is signed, so unless someone broke Google’s signature it’s valid.
The second element is the Hangouts Dialer which should be downloadable with no problem. The Hangouts Dialer allows you to place free VOIP phone calls directly from Hangouts. This means if you lose WiFi connection after starting a call on WiFi, you lose the call.
It also means you’re going to be billed by Google for their VOIP service if you’re using it to dial internationally. While probably not a nefarious move, still a bit of a concern. For those who have been using Sprint’s WiFi calling, this may be a working solution if you want to use GPS without rebooting your phone.
I’m told that the option to dial out via normal carrier will present itself when Google Voice integration occurs server side for your account. I don’t know this personally though.
The third element unfortunately is server side Google… I’ve got 2.3 and Hangouts Dialer installed now but still do not have Google Voice integration. For that it appears I’m going to have to wait until my account gets hit.
Thanks to John_Williams for the Hangouts Calling tip, and XDA member ankitsuthar for posting the signed APK.
Let us know if you find any way to speed up the Voice integration. I’m pretty sure that’s just going to get done when it gets done, though.
