IN AN OFFICIAL COMPANY blog post last night, Google announced the official release of its latest free application: Google Voice.
With Google Voice, users can get all their calls through a single Google phone number, adding all of their other numbers to Google Voice and then make their own rules for how their phones ring, among other features.
Calls can be made from the phone and the web, annoying callers can be blocked at will, and custom greetings for different callers or groups of callers can be recorded.
The service also offers voice mail transcription and users can get all their voicemails in one place, saved for as long as required.
Google acquired some of these capabilities when it bought Grandcentral in 2007 and for now, only users of Grandcentral can get Google Voice, a service which, of course, crosses national boundaries, too.
“The new application improves the way you use your phone. You can get transcripts of your voicemail and archive and search all of the SMS text messages you send and receive. You can also use the service to make low-priced international calls,” reads the blog post and it’s also offering a free (and very fast, we checked) directory assistant service at 1-800-GOOG-411
