Gmail users with loved ones abroad have a reason to smile for. In a new development, Google slashed its prices for its international calling rates.

The service by Google which allows users to make free domestic calls and inexpensive international calls has been a rave among Gmail users. Google recorded close to a million calls on the very first day of its service.

The announcement made on Google’s official blog also stated that the service will be supported in 38 languages which includes Chinese, Russian and Portuguese among other languages. To make the service more user friendly, people can buy calling cards in British Pounds, U.S. Dollars, Euros and Canadian Dollars. Now, one can make free domestic calls and calling as cheap as 10 cents a call to a cell phone in the UK, 15 cents for cell phone calls to Mexico and only 2 cents for calls in India and China.

The services are touted to begin in 150 countries around the world within the next few days. For users to know if they are eligible for these services, they will receive an icon of a small green phone on their chat screen, Google said.

This move can be seen as a clear one to compete against Google’s competitor Skype. Skype which lets its users make cheap international calls are more expensive in some countries in comparison to Google’s call rates. Considering the fact that Google has a massive fan base, Skype will have to slash their own rates to compete with Google.

Seems like another war in the making. Just a different battleground.