Google’s Home speaker will soon be able to do hands-free calling

Amazon might’ve beaten Google to the punch in adding voice call functionality to its smart speaker, but not by much. Today Google announced that it’s adding a new calling feature to Google Home. At launch, only outgoing calls are supported; there’s no way to call the Home speaker itself from another Home or your smartphone. Google has said it will roll out calling to all Home owners “over the coming months.”

Calls are totally free when you dial phone numbers in the United States or Canada. By default, the people you call will see a private number when their phone rings, but you can pair your own cellular number to the feature to avoid that weirdness. If your Home is set up to support multiple users, each can pair their own phone number and Home will recognize who’s trying to make a call.

Google says it’s only supporting outbound calls to start because it’s being mindful of customer privacy. Amazon has been criticized for haphazardly rolling out voice calls for its Echo speaker devices. As of now, Amazon’s implementation offers no way for customers to block incoming calls from individuals. The company has said it will add a block feature “in the coming weeks.”