Gmail gets voice and video chat

Google today announced an enhancement to Gmail that allows voice and video chat to take place directly within the client.

In Gmail chat, the tag under the conversation window normally titled "options," is replaced by the "video and more" tag. Clicking on this expands a menu that can allow voice or video chats to take place alongside email and text chats at any time.

To enable Google Talk in Gmail, you first download and install a 1.4 MB browser plug-in (available here). In the official Google Blog, software engineer Justin Uberti says Gmail voice and video was designed using XMPP, RTP and H.264 so third party apps and networks can choose to interoperate.

The rollout will not make voice and video immediately available to all Gmail users, and could take one to two more days before the feature is added.