Google Voice vs Google Talk: Difference and Comparison

Google is best known for providing useful applications and services to internet users. Some of their features like the Google assistant are fun and innovative.

These types of innovations let people do things easily. You can call a friend just by saying google to make a call. There are many features of Google like this. Google Voice and Google Talk were two of them.

Key Takeaways

1. Google Voice is a telephony service providing call forwarding and voicemail features, while Google Talk is an instant messaging service.
2. Google Voice assigns users a unique phone number, whereas Google Talk relies on a Gmail address for communication.
3. Google Talk was discontinued in 2013 and integrated into Hangouts, while Google Voice continues to be a standalone service.

Google Voice vs Google Talk

Google Voice is a telephony service launched by Google in 2009, that uses a prepaid billing system and allows users to make and receive calls and messages from a single phone number. Google Talk was a messaging service also provided by Google that has since 2013 been replaced by Google Hangouts.

Google Voice is the telecommunicating application provided by Google. It provides services like voicemails, texts, and call forwarding.

It is available for everyone with a Google account in America. Customers must configure a mobile number in the web portal to which the calls will be forwarded. This was used by many people. It provided the option to block unwanted numbers.

Google talk was launched in the year 2005. It offers text and audio communication options. It was called the Gtalk, Gchat, or the Message.

This application was accessible in Microsoft Windows, Chrome OS, and also Android. A mobile application was also launched for this service. It is no more available but a new version of it has been recommended by Google for the previous Google talk users.

Comparison Table

Parameters of Comparison	Google Voice	Google Talk
Launched on	March 11, 2009	August 24, 2005
Options	Phone calls and Messages	Texts, Voice, and video chats
Offline messaging	Not available	Available
Control	It controls the entire call making	No full control
Discontinued on	2021	2017

What is Google Voice?

The users of Google Voice can make voice calls from a computer to another computer throughout the world. But, calling a phone from a computer using Google Voice is available only in the US and Canada.

GrandCentral funded by Minor ventures was bought by Google in 2005. Google continued to maintain this without allowing any new users.

But in 2009, Google renamed this as Google Voice. This very new Google Voice at that time had some added features in addition to the existing features of the Grand central.

Peter Bouchard a Telecom consultant was appointed by Google to make some changes in Grand central to make it into a new Google Voice service.

After this renewal, Google started accepting new members in addition to the preexisting Grand central members. It allows international calls at a fairly lower price.

It also lets the users change their number by paying some amount of fees. Calling a phone from a computer is available only in US and Canada. Google was planning to expand this to other countries.

Google Voice Mobile App was also released by Google. SMS cannot be sent to non-American users. Apple rejected Google’s request to add the Google Voice app to their App Store.

Google Voice was added to Google Hangouts which was later removed in 2021. It doesn’t have an emergency calling option.

Though it requires a real number to register, many people have created accounts using temporary fake numbers provided by some websites.

What is Google Talk?

The instant messaging service of Google, the Google talk was launched on August 24, 2005. It allows the user to text any other user with a service provider with XMPP protocol support.

It also allows the users to make and receive phone calls from Gmail with the help of this Google Talk. This is for users in the US. Users from other countries must have a Google Voice account to make calls.

Sending offline messages through Google Talk works in a way that the sender doesn’t need an internet connection to send the message but the recipient receives the message only when they go online.

Text formatting is absent but users can write their texts between two asterisks to obtain bold text. Putting your text between underscores yields an italicized text.

Their Chatback option allows the users to chat with another person with no Google Talk account. In 2007 Group chat option was enabled. This helps many users in a group to chat with each other. Google in 2012 announced that they will be shutting down their Google Talk mobile web application. Google talk app service for windows was also stopped in 2015.

The Google talk mobile application was also taken down in 2017. This may be due to the decreasing demand and the arrival of other texting applications like Facebook.

Google Hangouts was the alternative option provided by Google to Google Talk users. The chat tool that was available through Gmail was also discontinued.

Main Differences Between Google Voice and Google Talk

1. Google voice allows the users to make calls while Google talk is mainly for texting but the calling option is also available with some limitations
2. Google voice requires an American phone number to enroll the users but, Google talk lets users from other countries also text
3. Google voice can work on multiple phones at the same time. All the given mobile numbers ring if the person receives a call. But, this is not the case of Google talk
4. Google Voice allows users to call a telephone from a computer. Google talk users can send messages to their friends through offline
5. Google voice did not offer video call but Google talk offered this feature after it got integrated with Google Hangouts

References

1. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ887127
2. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/4037059/