Google Home gets free phone calls in the US and Canada

At I/O 2017, Google promised that Google Home would get the ability to make phone calls. Today, the feature is rolling out to users in the US and Canada.

Further Reading Google Home can now tell users apart just by their voice Google Home users can call businesses listed in Google Maps or people in Google Contacts with a simple "OK Google, call [whoever]." It also combines Google Contact's relationship knowledge and Google Home's multi-user support, allowing people to say something like "Call my mom" and have the system accurately look up and dial the right person.

Calls are free to anyone in the US and Canada. For most people, international calls and premium numbers are not supported, and the recipient will see "Unknown" or "No Caller ID." Subscribers to Google's Project Fi MVNO service or Google Voice numbers get a whole other experience, though: there's an option in the settings to have caller ID show your Google number, and international and 900 numbers can be billed to your account at the usual rate. For everyone else, Google says that, "by the end of the year," you'll be able to link any mobile number to the Google Home for caller ID. 911 calls aren't supported, and it doesn't sound like it can receive calls to your number.

Further Reading Google Home review: A step forward for hotwords, a step backward in capability Google has almost made good on the Google Home promises it made at I/O in May. We've seen it launch support for creating calendar events and multi-user support (which can tell users apart just by their voice). But at the show, Google also promised the ability to create reminders, a "proactive notifications" system, generic Bluetooth speaker abilities, and TV weather integration. So far, these features haven't launched.

We haven't seen phone call support pop up on any of our Google Homes yet—and that's with all of them being enrolled in the new beta firmware program. But it should arrive any day now.