Initiate call using Gmail's Call Phone feature or chat

[gkas]

Is there a way to start a call from the Gmail "Call Phone" link?

Here's some background: for a few months before I bought my Obi, I used a PC headset to make Google Voice calls. This is really convenient using the link "Call Phone" in the chat menu at left, esp. since I can type a few letters of the person's name, select it, and it dials for me -- no need to type in numbers.

But now using the Obi and my cordless phone, I have to look up the number using Gmail and then key it in on the phone's dial pad.

I've found several references like the one below that make me think it's possible to dial from Gmail and have the call initiated on the Obi so I can use the cordless handset. For example:

http://www.obihai.com/googlevoiceFAQ.html#01

But in my Gmail, there is no "Obi" entry under the chat. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[Bob_Y]

The "Obi" in the illustration is just another Google chat user, like John Doe, or Fred Jones. The illustration refers to the "Call Phone" button at the bottom.

[Stewart]

From your GV Inbox (not Gmail) at https://www.google.com/voice#inbox , you should be able to use the Call button to start a call that you can take on the OBi.  If you check "Remember my choice", the OBi will become the default for future calls.

You call also click the Call link on an inbox or history entry to call the corresponding number, even if not in your contact list.

[gkas]

Thanks to Stewart for this help. However, when I go to my Google Voice inbox as suggested, and click the Call button, I have only these options under "Phone to call with": Google Talk, Cell. Is there supposed to be an option for Obi? When I go into Google Voice's setting page, on the Phones tab, I can "Add another phone", but not sure what the number or phone type should be?

[Huib]

Use the Google Talk option, that should be your OBi

[gkas]

Using the Google Talk option does not work either -- currently for some reason that rings my cell phone and then connect me to the number I dialed.

I feel like I should either be setting up a new phone device, or there should be an additional option somewhere in either Google Voice or Google Talk/Chat. But maybe this just isn't supported?

[Stewart]

If I have GV and Gmail both open in browser tabs, I can initiate a call from GV, specifying "Google Talk" as "Phone to call with", Gmail rings and when answered, the call goes though.  You might test (with the OBi temporarily shut down) if that works for you.  Then, close Gmail, reboot the OBi and retest.

[jimates]

Google Talk and the Obi are the same "phone". The Obi logs into Google with your gmail credentials and acts as the chat feature in gmail.

In gmail it is called "google chat". In google voice it is called "google talk". Same "phone". if gmail is open it will ring your gmail phone. If the Obi is logged in, it will ring the Obi. Most users find that they cannot have both Gmail and the Obi used at the same time. When Gmail is opened it logs in and the Obi is booted out.

When you choose google talk as the "phone to call with" it will either ring the gmail or the Obi, whichever is logged in.

Perhaps this is your remedy.
If you previously checked "Remember my choice" when you placed a previous call. Place a new call from your contacts and quickly uncheck the "Remember my choice" box.  Then you can pick which phone is used each time you make a call.

Calling from within google voice is called "Click2Call".
Normally you can't switch phones in outgoing calls but you can if the call is initiated with "Click2Call".

Switching phones

Once you are on a call you can switch the Google Voice forwarding phone you are using to talk right in the middle of the call by pressing the * key. For example, if you answer your call in Gmail and wish to switch to your cellular forwarding number, pressing   *   will cause your cellular forwarding phone to ring for you to complete the call.
(all active phones in the forwarding phones list will ring when you press   *) This is a useful feature to transfer an outgoing call to another person in your family, but remember you must initiate using "Click2Call".

[gkas]

Thank you to everyone who replied -- I feel like a dope, because it turns out the problem was caused by having Groove IP installed, running and logged into the same Gmail account.

As far as I can figure, with Groove IP running on the cell phone, all calls to Gtalk were getting routed there. This included incoming from other callers, as well as calls initiated by me using the Google Voice "Call" button, with Phone to Call With set to Google Talk.

Turning off Groove IP entirely solved the problem. Incoming calls and outgoing calls from Voice now ring the phone. Yea, phone nirvana is back!

I apologize sincerely for not figuring this out earlier, and can only hope others with similar problems see this thread!

[jimates]

Gmail Chat, Obi, Groove IP and Talkatone all use the same credentials and log in as Gmail Chat. Only one can be signed in at a time. Gmail Chat usually takes precedence when it is open. Groove IP and Talkatone seem to be next (as long as the app is open) and the Obi seems last in line.

[Dale]

I'll state again, the fact that gmail talk is in a browser does not seem to be the issue because without changing the status of that browser, a test call from another phone  rang on the Obi. If the gmail talk was the reason for the phone not ringing then two things would have been different:

1) the gmail talk would have rung
2) the test phone call would have not rung on the phone

since both of those items did not occur it is a strong indication that it is nothing to do with gmail in the browser. - especially number 1.