Well, it"s finally happened: Google has finally put Grandcentral, a service it acquired back in 2007, to good use as Google Voice. The company made the announcement yesterday on their official blog.
Google Voice is a new application that allows users to get transcripts of voicemails and SMS text messages via email. The new service is free and offers "one number for life," so that incoming calls to your "GV" number get forwarded to all your other phones -- work, mobile, home or hotel room.
The key feature of the new service is that it's able to recognize the words in a voicemail message, and can then email a transcript of the message to your inbox or deliver it to your phone via SMS--kind of like having a digital personal assistant managing your calls.
The new interface of Google Voice is designed like a central inbox for all your voice communications needs, much like Gmail is for email.
Depending on how many people begin switching over to "GV", it could be a huge threat to a number of other popular services such as Skype, as well as voicemail transcription services such as Spinvox.
Some people don't need to be in contact all the time, or their communications aren't so complicated that a product like this is necessary. But it does seem likely that many will be using the new service from the Internet powerhouse.
Right now Google Voice is only available to Grandcentral users but company representatives Craig Walker, Vincent Paquet, and Wesley Chan said yesterday in the official Google blog that they would be "opening it up to others soon".
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