Welcome to Google Talk
Getting Started with Google Talk
Welcome to Google Talk - Google's approach to instant communications. This guide will introduce you to all the different ways you can use Google Talk.
Downloading Google Talk
The Google Talk downloadable application for Windows offers many features for communicating with your friends and family.
Instant messaging — Chat with all of your Google Talk and Google Mail contacts in real time.
Free PC-to-PC voice calls — You can talk for free to anyone else who's online and has the Google Talk client.
Send and receive voicemails— If the person you're calling isn't available, you can leave a voicemail. (Learn more)
Google Mail notifications on your desktop — When you're signed into Google Talk, you'll be notified of new messages in your Google Mail inbox.
Google Talk on the web
The Google Talk gadget is a web-based application with some fun features for communicating in real time.
Instant messaging — Chat with all of your Google Talk and Google Mail contacts in real time.
No download required — Start chatting immediately from any computer.
Group chat — Invite multiple people to chat with you in a group. (Learn more)
Media previews — Cut and paste video and slideshow URLs from YouTube, Google Video, Picasa Web Albums and Flickr into your chats and view them in your chat window. (Learn more)
Add to iGoogle — You can add the Google Talk gadget to your iGoogle homepage to put chat alongside other useful and entertaining gadgets.
Add to your own webpage — Just cut and paste this code into your own web page or blog to embed the Google Talk gadget.
Integration with Google Mail
Google Mail, Google's free email service, offers built-in chat using the Google Talk network.
Built-in chat — Google Mail has chat built in, so you can easily switch between emailing and instant messaging with your contacts.
Chat history — If you use Google Talk with a Google Mail account and all of your chats are saved to a searchable archive in Google Mail.
Reply by chat — When the contact who sent you an email is online (in Google Talk or Google Mail), you have the option to reply to that person by chat.
Other ways to connect through Google Talk
Google Talk uses open standards for instant messaging and voice calling. That means anyone can build applications for the Google Talk network.
Other IM clients — Explore other applications that connect to the Google Talk network.