# Solved: Google Voice does not work



## CedarWaxwing (Jul 8, 2011)

I discovered Google Voice is a way to make free calls. When I was in gmail I downloaded the plugin and installed it. However when I tried to open the plugin it said I still had not downloaded it even when I checked in all 3 browsers. So I installed the Chrome extention for google voice instead. Eventually I figured out that maybe I needed to set up a google voice account first before I made calls.

After creating my google voice account and choosing a phone number, I tried to use google voice at www.google.com/voice.
It loaded my account fine, but whenever I click the call button at the top left of the page and enter any phone number and click connect, it always fails to do anything at all, except saying "Calling you." Why should it say "calling you" when it's a friend's number that I am trying to call? At the top of the box where you put in phone numbers to call it says, "Google will call your phone and connect you." Why would it need to even call my personal cell phone if it's supposed to be calling my friend and using my new Google phone number? It's only supposed to use my cell phone as a forwarding number I thought. When I click "Connect" it doesn't even ring my phone but just stops working altogether, even though when I set up my account it called my cell successfully to activate my account.


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## CedarWaxwing (Jul 8, 2011)

I read on another forum that you can only make calls through gmail on the computer, otherwise it will try to connect your cell phone through google voice to the friend's phone number. I guess that means there's a problem with installing the plugin through gmail. I installed it and it said that it installed the plugin successfully but when I try to make a call it tells me I still need to install the plugin regardless of what web-browser I'm using (chrome, firefox or IE)


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## CedarWaxwing (Jul 8, 2011)

I found out it did not work because I had to have administrative privileges. In order for it to install correctly in the standard non-admin account I had to temporarily turn off User account control before installing it.


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## AtlasG (Oct 13, 2012)

Just in case someone comes along and reads this thread looking for help with Google Voice, I thought I'd clarify that you're confusing two different options. You can either have Google Voice call your phone and then dial out to whoever you're calling, or you can use your computer to make the call and speak and listen through the computer. They're two different things.


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