Google Hangouts upgrade kills Google Voice calls on your computer

An upgrade to Google Hangouts has killed a number of features from Google Talk within Gmail, including the ability to set your availability status and make Google Voice calls.

Essentially if you upgrade to Google Hangouts, you will no longer have the option to host a Google Voice call on your computer, something that’s become an important part of a lot of people’s work days.

According to The Verge, the removal of the feature was first reported by users in the Google support forums before it was confirmed that it is no longer possible to place or receive calls in Gmail once you’ve upgraded Talk to Hangouts.

The only real option for people who want to make voice calls is to make calls via the Google Voice web app, which will ring one of their connected phones before routing the call to a third party.

The ability to make calls from within Gmail, first launched in 2010, saw massive uptake especially in the US where Google allowed free phone calls to local landline numbers.

If you absolutely can’t live without the feature, Google has also made it possible to revert back to the old version of Google Talk in Gmail, even if you’ve already upgraded to hangouts. This does restore the ability to make phone calls from Google Talk, so we can at least be sure that Google isn’t going to kill support for the service any time soon.

Google will apparently add support for some of the features of Google Voice to Hangouts in the near future, but it’s unclear exactly which features those will be. So if you’re a serious Google Voice fan, it might be best to hold off on that upgrade for as long as possible.