In a Tuesday announcement made via an official blog post, Google revealed that it is bringing back the voice call service, and integrating it with Google Hangouts. The announcement implies that Google has quietly returned the voice calling functionality to Gmail, as well as the company's Google+ social network and the Hangouts Chrome extension.

The voice calling functionality of the Gmail is a well-liked feature which Google had not included when it integrated Hangouts and Gmail's chat last May. Though the feature will initially be available to desktop users, voice integration for Google's mobile apps will likely be announced in the coming months.

To use the voice calling feature, users need to login to their Gmail accounts, open their Google+ or Hangouts Chrome extension, and make a voice call to any number. The Hangouts desktop calling feature also gives the users the ability to do conference calls and video calls in one single call; and also have background music or sound effects played during a call.

The first countries which are getting the advantage of the VoIP calling service are the US, the UK, and Canada.

Revealing that making calls from Hangouts is being rolled out by Google over the next couple of days, Google Senior Software Engineer Alex Wiesen, announcing the return of the voice call functionality, said: "Calls to the US and Canada are now free from all countries where Hangouts calling is available. And international rates remain super, super low."