You can now start and join video & voice calls from within the Gmail app on iPhone

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

Gmail On Iphone
Gmail On Iphone (Image credit: Charles Deluvio / iMore)

What you need to know

  • You can now start and join voice and video calls from within the Gmail app.
  • Calls can now be started by tapping a button in Google Chats.

If you're someone who likes to use Google Chat inside the Gmail app on your iPhone, you can now more easily start or join a video or voice call, too. While it was kinda sorta possible before, it's now a case of tapping a button rather than the convoluted invitation system that was present before.

Google confirmed the change in a new Workspace Update post, saying that the feature works for "1:1 chats."

You can now start or join meetings and audio calls from 1:1 chats in Google Chat in Gmail on Android and iOS. At the moment, this feature will be available for 1:1 chats only.To ring someone directly, select the phone or video icon in the top right corner of a 1:1 chat.

Gmail Calling

Gmail Calling (Image credit: Google)

Google says that the move has been made to make it easier for people to stay in touch at a time where some people are working from offices and others are working from home.

As some teams begin to return to office, while others remain distributed, we hope this makes it easier to connect with your colleagues in the hybrid work world. This feature will allow you to seamlessly switch between chat to a video or audio call when needed, helping you collaborate and move your work forward.

The Gmail app is the best iPhone solution for people who want to access their Google-hosted emails, especially if they also want to make use of features like Google Chat. Improvements like this will no doubt be welcomed by those who also make use of Google's calling features, too.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.