Starting right now, Google is rolling out voice and video chat to all Gmail users. The audio-video chat feature is fairly simple and works straight from the browser. Unlike Skype and other VOIP services, you can’t make phone calls and scores of other features are missing, but still it’s a great add-on for Gmail.
Google decided to ditch flash, and build their proprietary add-on for the feature. The add-on weighs around 2 MB and supports IE, Firefox, Chrome in PC and Firefox-only for Mac users. Once the video feature is enabled in your account, you’ll see "Video & more." option in the lower left corner of the Gmail chat box. If you are trying to make a video call to someone, who has not installed the add-on, you’ll be able to invite them to do so. You have an option to go full-screen while video chatting.
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I’m quite disappointed that Google didn’t consider using the cross-platform Flash plugin. Since most people already have Flash plugin installed, users don’t need to install another browser add-on. Google Talk application has supported voice chat right from its early days. I’d like to see some of these new features added to the downloadable client as well.
Update: I’ve just confirmed that this works with Safari on OSX too, so the Apple people haven’t been left out.
Update: Here’s the announcement from Google
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