Google Voice manages your messages by giving you a single phone number that automatically rings your mobile, home, work and other phones based on your choice of rules and settings (who’s calling, when, etc.).
Now Google’s Voicemail will send your mobile voicemails into your Google Voice inbox, along with other voicemails and even text messages. Your voicemails are all automatically transcribed (using speech-to-text) and then spoken (using text-to-speech). Alternatively, you can also read your voice mail messages on your computer, along with your email.
People are still stuck with their legacy phone numbers, explains TechCrunch, and moving completely away from them is difficult. That’s why Google now allows mobile users to move their voicemail away from their mobile carrier and over to Google Voice. You can also create custom greetings for callers.
Up until now, if you wanted to use Google Voice, you needed to choose a new number (a “Google number”). So Google created a lighter version of Google Voice for people who are willing to trade some features for the ability to use their existing numbers.
If you already use Google Voice, you can add Google voicemail to any mobile phone you’ve linked to your account. If you’re not using Google Voice, you can request an invitation or ask someone with a Google Voice account to invite you. When you receive the invitation to sign-up, you decide whether you’d like to use Google Voice with your existing number or get a Google number.
The limited functionality of the new Google Voice option is hardly anything to get excited about, says PC World.
