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Monday, December 12, 2011

Free iPhone WiFi Calls

How to setup free Wifi Calling on your iPhone with Vonage & Google Voice

Free iPhone Calls through Wifi with Vonage® Mobile and Google Voice™ apps.

Ever wondered how to make and receive free calls on your iPhone? I did. I wondered about how I could possibly get away with making free WiFi calls and receiving them. I found a nice solution to my question and my curiosity, the following will explain how this works and what you must do to be able to make free WiFi calls.

There have been many methods brewed up by random people online here and there in the past, such as using a Gizmo5™ account or more advanced SIP numbers. Those methods are now outdated, Google™ bought Gizmo5™, you can no longer register for a Gizmo5™ account. The SIP numbers come with a price tag now and it just doesn't feel right.

This new method uses the Vonage™ and Google Voice™ apps to make and receive free WiFi calls. This only works in the United States, since Google Voice™ is only available to US Residents, Vonage™ only allows free WiFi calls to numbers in the US as well.

Requirements
iPhone (Hardware)
Computer Headset (Hardware)
Vonage Mobile (App)
Google Voice (App)
Google Chrome (Software)
Google Voice & Video Chat plug-in (Software)
Gmail account (Service)
Google Voice account (Service)

    Instructions
  1. Make sure you have the requirements installed, setup and ready to use, also plug your headset into the computer.
  2. From this point on, you should only be using the Chrome browser to do any Google related activities.
  3. Login to your Google Voice account, go to settings and enable "Google Chat" as a forwarding phone for calls. (If you do not see Google Chat followed by your Gmail e-mail, login to Gmail and place a brief call to your number, then refresh the Google Voice page, it should now be listed) 1
  4. Now make sure you have an open Gmail page with your account logged in. Make sure your settings resemble the ones on for this step's image. 2
  5. Open Vonage Mobile on your iPhone and setup an account using your Google Voice number as the phone you will use to verify the account.
  6. Vonage Mobile will place an automated call to your Google Voice number now and will require you to input a few digits to verify the number is yours, make sure your speakers are on and your Gmail account is open and ready for a call.
  7. Now that your Vonage Mobile account is verified and registered, you will be given a pop-up to purchase a Vonage Rate Plan, click Ok and exit the link it opens. (You do not need to purchase anything to make calls within the United States)
  8. Make sure you're on a WiFi network and place a call using Vonage Mobile, the party you are calling should see your Google Voice number as the caller I.D.
  9. You can now use the Google Voice app on your iPhone to send and recieve texts, get voicemails, view your Google contacts and check call logs, all through WiFi. (You must use Vonage Mobile to place calls through WiFi as the Google Voice app is not a VOIP client)
  10. Feel free to setup your Google Voice account to ring your iPhone's actual number in case you want to receive live calls. (Otherwise you'll just have to check your voicemails or missed calls through the Google Voice app)
  11. You have successfully configured your iPhone to place free WiFi calls and somewhat incoming calls, plus completely free texting and free voicemail with additional features all for free.


2 comments:

  1. THANKS! Just what I needed. Not sure why you don't have 7000 comments saying "THANKS!", but here's at least my one :).

    ReplyDelete
  2. When i have vonage make the call to my google account I dont get it? It says it cant send me a text either. Can anyone help me out?

    ReplyDelete