The option to “Call phone” now appears within Google Chat. When you click the link, a Gchat pop-up appears where you can dial numbers and make phone calls.

Google tests a new feature that makes Gmail chat more useful: users are able to make and receive Google Voice calls from Gmail. A new phone icon opens a Gmail chat window with a dialpad, an option to find contacts, a credit balance and a call button.

Five months after Google acquired Gizmo5 there are rumors that they are working on a Desktop version of Google Voice. Our friends over at TechCrunch wrote: “We’ve confirmed that they [Google] have now built a Google Voice Desktop application to make and receive calls.”

Using Google Voice for Android just got a whole lot faster. Until now, notifications of new messages appeared within 15 minutes of when they were sent. Today we are releasing a new feature called Inbox synchronization, which will notify your Android-powered device of new text messages or voicemails within seconds of receiving new messages in your Google Voice inbox.