Reader Leslie writes in:

Did you see the news about Google adding free phone calls to Gmail chat? Will this mean we’ll be listening to more conversations on flights with wifi?

Google is indeed expanding its Google Voice product to the instant messenger built into Gmail.

But will the rollout of voice chat mean that you’ll find dozens of passengers screaming into their laptops? I doubt it.

Fears — including my own — that passengers are going to use the internet connection to use voice and video chat ad nauseam have not panned out.

True, Skype is blocked on most airlines, but there have been plenty of workarounds and alternate methods of making calls. And frankly, it hasn’t seemed like much of a problem. The cabin hasn’t turned into a big chatfest in my experience.

In part, that’s because of a low acceptance rate of inflight wifi — maxing out between 5 and 10% per enabled flight in one estimate. Blame the cost of the service — which isn’t necessarily crazy-high, but high enough to dissuade buyers — plus the lack of sufficient power supply and tight space constraints.

If the ubiquity of wi-fi hasn’t created an inflight cacophony of chatter, then I don’t think Gmail with voice chat will, either.