How To Make Phone Calls From Your Desktop/Laptop?

Here’s a common observation of how to Make Phone Calls From Your Desktop/Laptop: In some industries, human connection is missing. Certain kinds of industries don’t have human communication i.e. voiced voice with customers or prospects. This can weaken businesses. Though we are living in the digital world, we must remember that people need to talk to each other.

Real-time conversations may bring fewer mistakes into the relationship. This is in comparison with emails or texts that are cryptic. Moreover, as a business, it is important to understand that customers can misinterpret messages based on how they’ve been delivered. 

So, if you have a desktop, laptop, or any other devices and use it less often to make phone calls, you should rethink it from a business standpoint. With remote working on the rise due to the pandemic, employees within your business will be more reluctant towards using desk phones and would like to use softphones instead. 

Various software apps help employees bring the functionality of a phone onto a computer or laptop to connect with clients. Making phone calls from your desktop or laptop will be much easier to stay connected with other team members and clients no matter where you are working from. 

In this article, you will learn to make phone calls from your desktop or laptop. This will help you keep your work efficiently with a desktop/laptop but most importantly, your actual life on the cell phone.

Ways to Make Phone Calls from Your Desktop/Laptop

Making phone calls from your desktop or laptop can be done in many ways. It depends on the hardware and software of your machine that you will be using to make the call. Since phone calls occur over the internet, employees won’t be using their cell phone plan to connect with clients or customers. Moreover, while making phone calls from your computer, the cell numbers will be private as it connects to a cloud phone system over the Internet.

VoIP technology also plays an important role while making phone calls from a desktop or laptop. Because of the advancement in VoIP technology, users can communicate and connect with other users based in different parts of the world with just a computer and internet connection. 

However, there are certain requirements that you need to fulfill to make phone calls from your desktop or laptop. These requirements may include software, hardware, or both to create proper infrastructure for communication purposes.

The Hardware You Need 

To start making phone calls from your desktop or laptop, you may require some information technology devices and software. Focusing on hardware, initially, you will need a computer. A computer can be a desktop or laptop and this also ensures that you have a high-speed and reliable internet connection.

Next, you may require a headset or earphones which can easily be connected to a laptop or desktop. Most laptops do have inbuilt-microphones but for better sound quality, it is always advisable to purchase a headset or earphones. However, in the case of a desktop, it will need to have one pair of headset or earphones since the desktop does not come with inbuilt microphones.

The Software You Need 

Once you have set up the hardware, you need to decide the software that you will be running on the machine to make phone calls. You can choose from various software or applications available in the market such as Zoom, Google Voice, and Skype, to name a few. These software and applications are free to download.

Also, make sure whoever you call via desktop or laptop also has Wi-Fi calling to keep things cheap or free from both the end. After things are in place i.e. both hardware and software, then you are ready to make a phone call. To begin using the headset or earphones, you may directly plug them or connect them via Bluetooth to your desktop or laptop.

Under the computer’s system settings, you may find the sound section to check the sound settings. In the input list, you need to choose ‘external microphone’ or headset name appearing in the list. You can also test your microphone just to confirm whether it is functioning properly or not.

Make a Phone call from your desktop/laptop using Google Voice

Google voice is simply a telephonic service by Google which provides free computer to computer voice calling all over the world. Moreover, in certain countries, you can easily make low-cost calls to international phone numbers. Also, at present, you can make calls from computer to mobile phones within Canada or the United States which is completely free.

Google voice also comes with easy number portability. This means that it gives you a special number through which you can forward your calls to other phone numbers. Also, it provides voicemail with speech recognition technology to transcribe your voicemail. This turns your voicemail into a readable text for better understanding.

You can even block the phone number using Google Voice. You can easily block specific numbers. Below are steps that you can follow to make a phone call from Google voice on your computer.

➤ Log in to voice.google.com and go to the ‘Calls‘ tab on the home screen.

➤ Next, you need to type a name if the person is on your contact list. Else, you can simply click on the ‘Dial‘ icon that will be appearing and you can simply type the phone number you want to call.

➤ Lastly, you just need to confirm that the upper right ‘Call as‘ field has your Google voice number. Then, you can simply click ‘Call‘ and you will be able to connect with the concerned person over desktop/laptop.

Make a phone call from your computer using Skype

Skype for business is software that is designed and developed to facilitate collaboration and communication between team members with one another regardless of their location or device. 

You just need a laptop or desktop and an internet connection to communicate with team members working remotely or in different parts of the world. Since it is cross-platform, this makes it easier for team members to collaborate easily irrespective of the platform (Windows, Android, iOS, or Mac) they are using. 

This means that it provides users the freedom of using any device of their choice for communication. Moreover, it cut costs and expenditure on business travel. Most importantly, Skype encrypts communication between users and comes with high-level security authentication before getting access to the software. 

Also, Skype comes with a feature to track your expenditure of all your organization’s Skype accounts if you are looking to use Skype as a VoIP phone system. The basic steps that you can follow to make a phone call using Skype are as follows:

➤ You need to first login to Skype with your credentials.

➤ Simply move the mouse cursor to the ‘Calls‘ tab in the left menu, and click the ‘New Call‘ button to dial the number

➤ Now, you can simply look for the Skype contact name from you directly. Else, simply dial the number to connect with.

➤ Just click ‘Call‘ and you will be simply connected to the person receiving the call.

Can You Use Any Device When Making VoIP Calls?

VoIP stands for voice over internet protocol which allows users to make phone calls over the internet since it is a wireless form of communication. It is also important to know that the receiver on the end should also be a VoIP user. Moreover, you need to be familiar with understanding the process of how VoIP works

This will help you be successful in making VoIP calls seamlessly. Since software and application running on VoIP technology requires an internet connection to work, using any computer(laptop or desktop) or smartphone can be a good fit. Any device of your choice can easily operate and run programs or apps for phone calling such as Google Voice or Skype.

Also, you can even use a regular landline phone with a special VoIP adapter attached to it. VoIP adapter plugs into a wireless router or cable modem using an ethernet cable and with your computer device switched on, enter the IP address on the VoIP adapter.

Then, you will be easily able to configure your adapter as per the instructions given on the screen. Also, it is important to know that the VoIP connection will majorly depend on your broadband internet connection.

Conclusion

To conclude, VoIP plays an important role to make a phone call from your desktop or laptop. Making phone calls from your computer will lead to higher scalability, lower costs, and increased accessibility. 

Furthermore, it will be very useful in the case of multitasking and complete portability. Video conferences or simple phone calls from desktop or laptop is much easier with the help of VoIP technology. 

Moreover, many information technology companies have come up with various software programs and applications based on VoIP technology. This makes it easy for users to do calling through the internet connection with the help of their computer.

Also, this has contributed to a smooth transition from traditional communication methods to a digitally connected world with the help of advanced IT machines, the internet, and new technologies such as VoIP. The ease to make a phone call from the computer is a perfect example of this.

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