Originally shared by Oleg Moskalensky
Call Anyone (free) from a Google Plus post (or comment) with a single click!
#googleplustips
Did you know you could do this? In retrospect I should've, but never thought about it. But you can, you really can make single-click phone calls directly from within a Google Plus post or comment. How, you ask? It's actually quite simple.
All you have to do is enter a phone number into your G+ post/comment, in a formatted manner and people will be able to call you by simply clicking on that phone number.
Here's how this works:
1. You need to have Google Voice Chrome Extension active (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-voice-by-google/kcnhkahnjcbndmmehfkdnkjomaanaooo?hl=en), and Google Voice account to go with it.
2. The phone shown in the post needs to be formatted, eg don't simply show it as 4251234567, instead show it as 425-123-4567 or (425)-123-4567 or even my favorite 425.123-4567, in other words - format it as normally a phone number would be formatted for readability.
That's really it. Whenever someone sends you a post/comment with the phone number there - you'll see it as a link and clicking on it will launch the dialer and call the number. It's pretty slick and works great. try it.
Please keep in mind that the above prerequisite steps are for the person doing the dialing, not the person who created the post/comment. So just by you inserting a phone number into your post - will NOT automatically ensure that everyone will be able to simply click on it to call you. They'll need to have that Google Voice setup as described to do so.
However, since all of this is free (including the calling in US & Canada... you hear me Amanda Blain) - you can easily get your business clients set up with this kind of functionality and then create posts enabling people to easily call you on their phone with a single click, right from your Google+ post or comment.
I'd like to thank Gina VanLoon, who unintentionally made me realize that this is easily doable by simply replying to my post from Gmail with her signature having her name and her formatted phone number. Want her number? ;)
