Google Home may not be able to match Amazon’s Echo platform in terms of feature parity, but the company continues to expand the functionality. During the second half of last year, we saw Google bring hands-free calling to the Google Home family of products. Everything is handled with voice commands and you can even hang up by saying “OK Google, hang up.” At launch, this feature was only made available to the United States and Canada, but we have just learned that the feature is available in the United Kingdom as well.
Google has a history of launching new products and services in a minimal number of locations. With the smartphone industry being global, this has resulted in a lot of complaints from the community when Google consistently brings new features to the United States first. This happened last year with the launch of hands-free calling, but since then they’ve had time to deal with the regulatory side of things. Hands-free calling still isn’t available in the broader European area, but Google Home and Google Home Mini customers in the United Kingdom can now use the feature.
Another thing that has changed has to do with what number the phone call comes from. When the service first launched, the hands-free phone calls were routed through your Google Voice number. Since the majority of Google Home and Google Home Mini customers don’t use Google Voice, it likely just seemed like a random number to them. But this expansion of hands-free calling to the United Kingdom also brings the ability to use your own phone number for outbound calls.
To do this, you’ll need to launch the Google Home application and look for the Services option within the Settings area. In here will be an option labeled “Calls on Speakers.” From here you’ll be able to add or change the current phone number. You’ll be required to verify the change with an SMS code and the setup will be complete once that has been verified.
Source: Google Support
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