1. What does Google Talk do?

Google Talk is an instant communications service that enables you to quickly and easily send instant messages or make PC-to-PC voice calls to your friends for free. There are two ways to use Google Talk. You can add the Google Talk Gadget to your Google Personalized Homepage to see your contacts list and IM your friends on your Google homepage. You can also download the Google Talk Client, which you can use to high quality make PC-to-PC voice calls and transfer files to your friends.

2. What is the Google Personalized Homepage?

The Google Personalized Homepage lets you gather all the information that's important to you from Google and across the web into one place. You can add gadgets for Gmail and Google Calendar, as well as modules you pick showing news feeds, pictures and videos.

3. What is the difference between the Google Talk Gadget and the Google Talk Client?

The Google Talk Gadget is a web-based tool for instant messaging, so it requires no download (as long as you have Flash Player 8.0 or above installed). You can add it to your Google Personalized Homepage to see your contacts and send instant messages alongside other content that is important to you.

The Google Talk Client requires a 1.5MB download, and does not run in your browser. You can use the Google Talk Client to make free, high quality PC-to-PC voice calls, and transfer unlimited files. If you are running the client in the background, you can also make voice calls from the Google Talk Gadget.

4. How do I preview videos and photos in my chats?

You can preview videos from YouTube or Google Video and photos from Picasa Web Albums by pasting a URL from these sites into your chat and sending. The gadget will recognize the URL as a video or photo, and enable you to view them inside your conversation.

5. How do I add the Google Talk Gadget to my own webpage or blog?

6. How does Google Talk work with Gmail?

If you're signing into Google Talk with a Gmail account, your Gmail contacts are pre-loaded and the people you communicate with most often will show up in your Google Talk Friends list. In addition, Gmail will archive your Google Talk chats (see below).

7. Can I save my Google Talk chat histories?

If you're using Google Talk with a Gmail account, yes, you can save your chat histories to your Gmail account, and access them from the "Chats" label or find them via search. Your chats will be saved if you are using the gadget, the client or Gmail chat. Your saved chats become just like Gmail messages?you can view them, forward them, print them or delete them. Never worry about losing something important from your chats again. Learn more.

8. How do I make voice calls?

You can make free PC-to-PC voice calls using the Google Talk Client from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world . You can also make calls from the gadget when you are running the client in the background. Calls are made through your computer using the latest voice technology; all you need is an Internet connection, a microphone and a speaker. If you don't have a speaker or built-in microphone, you may want to consider buying a headset, which will also provide the best voice quality when using Google Talk.

When you download and use Google Talk, you're actually connected to the group of users on the Google Talk network. Because Google Talk supports open standards, Google Talk users can also talk with users of other service providers that support open standards. So you can talk with more people, and not just ones who download Google Talk. We're hoping the list of service providers that support open standards will continue to grow, and that more and more users around the world will be able to talk to each other while still getting to use the service of their choice.

9. Is Google Talk available in other languages and countries?

Yes, in addition to US English, the Google Talk Client is available in these language interfaces: UK English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and simplified and traditional Chinese. The Google Talk Gadget is available only in US English, but can be added to any version of the Google Personalized Homepage.

10. Can I talk with my friends who use other IM services like AOL?

We support open standards, so Google Talk users can also talk with users of other service providers that support open standards.

11. What system requirements do I need to use Google Talk?

The Google Talk Gadget will work in most browsers - read the Personalized Homepage help article for a complete list. You'll need to install the free Adobe Flash Player (version 8+) in your browser. Because the Talk gadget is embedded into your browser, it's platform independent - it works on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

To use the Google Talk Client, you need Windows 2000, Windows XP (Home & Pro), Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2003. You'll also need a minimum 56k dial up connection, but a broadband connection is recommended. To make voice calls, you'll need a microphone and speakers (for optimal voice quality, we recommend using a headset). Google Talk works with any computer speaker and microphone, such as the ones built into many PC laptops today, as well as with wired and wireless headsets and USB phones. We've created a list of recommended accessories for the best Google Talk experience.

The downloadable Google Talk client is not compatible with Macintosh or Linux systems at this time.

Google Talk also supports standards-based communication clients, which means that Gmail users can access the Google Talk service and exchange instant messages using other clients that support the standard XMPP protocol, such as Trillian, GAIM, iChat, Adium, and Psi. This allows users to access the Google Talk service for instant messaging from all major platforms, including OSX, Linux, and Windows.

We aren't showing any ads on Google Talk. There are no pop-ups or clutter―just a clean and simple interface to make it easy for you to communicate instantly with your friends.

Google respects and protects the privacy of individuals that use our services. Google Talk gives you control over whom you talk with, whom you block, and who can see your online status. Additionally, Google only requires minimal personal information–just your name and email address–for you to use Google Talk.

Google Talk currently does not encrypt chats or calls. But we are working hard to make many improvements to Google Talk while it is in beta, and we plan to fully support encryption of chats and calls before our official release.

When you use Google Talk, you can save your chat histories in your Gmail account for searching and accessing later. This feature is on by default, but can be changed at any time from "Settings" in either Google Talk or Gmail. When you're chatting, you can also go "off the record" if you don't want a particular chat, or chats with a specific person, to be automatically saved in either person's Gmail account. No existing IM client offers this level of user privacy protection (although this feature does not prevent the person you're chatting with from manually saving your chats, such as by cutting and pasting. Also, the feature is available only if both you and the other person are using the Google Talk client, Gmail's chat features, or a third-party client that enables this feature.)

As with all major IM services, Google Talk will collect certain log information created in the course of a conversation. This information is for Google's internal use only, to maintain statistics on usage and to improve our service and the user experience. We do not permanently store any personally-identifying information in the Google Talk logs.

In keeping with our industry-leading Software Principles, you have complete control over the installation and removal of Google Talk. Periodically, Google Talk contacts our servers to see if you're running the most current version of the application. If necessary, we'll automatically provide you with the latest update to Google Talk so you can stay current and secure.

For more details, please review the Google Talk Privacy Policy. If you have thoughts you'd like to share with us on Google Talk and privacy, please let us know.

For more information or to get help with using Google Talk, please visit our Help Center.

To uninstall Google Talk:

1. Click the 'Start' menu, and highlight 'Settings.'
2. Select 'Control Panel.’
3. Open 'Add or Remove Programs.’
4. Highlight 'Google Talk’ in the list of programs currently installed on your computer.
5. Click 'Remove.’

We could tell you, but then you'd have to promise to not talk about it... Joking aside, Google Talk is still in beta, and we're working hard to add features and make improvements. We're just not quite ready yet to reveal the other cool things we've got planned.

But we want to keep making Google Talk better and we want your ideas and feedback to help make this happen! Talk to us using the Help link in the Google Talk interface. Let us know what you like, what you don't like, and what you'd really like.

We believe that you should have a choice in how you communicate with your friends, that you shouldn't have to use one service because that's where you keep your contacts and other information. We launched free auto-forwarding and POP access for Gmail so our users could take their messages with them and use any service they want, and we're committed to upholding this idea of user choice for Google Talk as well. Today, with instant communications, you can't talk to your contacts or buddies in one service while using another service. We hope to change that.

Google Talk supports open standards and is fully interoperable with other communications services that support the open server-to-server XMPP protocol. This means that users of any of these services can communicate directly with Google Talk users, and vice versa. Here is a list of just some of the service providers that already support this open industry standard.

While we hope many people will use and like the Google Talk client, we're also committed to making it as easy as possible for you to communicate with your friends using the client that you want–even if it doesn't happen to be ours. That's why we're also supporting open standards and the same protocol that clients such as Trillian, GAIM and iChat do. For more details, please visit our FAQ for developers.