Google Home voice calling arrives in the UK, call friends and family without your phone

Google has announced that voice calling has now been added as a feature to the Google Home and Google Home Mini smart speakers in the UK. What's more, you don't even need your phone nearby to be able to make calls as the Home and Home Mini speakers can tap into your Google Contacts address book to find friends and family, or you can call all manner of businesses.

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Google Home voice calling was announced as a feature at the company's I/O conference in May last year, before being introduced to the US in August. It's a feature that has been available via Google Assistant on a smartphone, but now it has made the leap to the smart speaker stage.

To make calls, you simply need to say "Ok, Google", speak the name of the person or business you want to call, and Google makes the call over a Wi-Fi connection.

The Google Home speakers can recognise up to six different voices, so if you live with friends, if any of them were to say "call mum", the speaker will work out who exactly is asking and call their mum, rather than someone else's.

Google has said that with the first call, you will show up as an unknown or private number to the person on the other end, but after that, you can set up caller ID so people know it's you calling.

Google

The update brings the Google Home in line with Amazon Echo, which has offered voice calling in the UK since October 2017, although it can only be used to call other Echo speakers unless you can an Echo Connect box.