Google Voice earlier called as GrandCentral would now be available for free and this free service would be offered by Google to all the subscribers who are there in their waiting list. The original GrandCentral VOIP service was purchased by Google in 2007 and meant for the use of its subscribers. But Google after its purchase added some more features like interoperability with SMS (Short Message Service) and has been in 2009 renamed as Google Voice.
Google Voice as well has all the features that many typical VoIP services have like Follow Me or Find Me service for all the calls that would be forwarded, call routing based on the identity of the caller that would be findable using the caller id, ability to switch calls from one phone to the other without disturbing the quality of the current call that is currently on line and feasibility to record calls. Google Voice also offers toll free click to call and click to return call features. Calling to US number with a web based GUI interface is also possible with Google Voice.
There are also many hi-fi features found in Google Voice that cannot be commonly found in an usual consumer VoIP service. Few of such features are speech to text conversion feature that helps in generating voice mail transcripts, SMS transactions using which users can send receive and store SMS, personalized greetings that can be set by the user, calling screening to avoid unwanted calls and the ability to use the mobile phone for viewing the inbox.
The most important and interesting feature in Google Voice is its ability to allow the user to link a phone number to a person instead of another phone number or location. This is certainly an interesting feature that would help the user in managing multiple calls effectively based on personal priorities and preferences.
Google Voice however have few drawbacks as it completely relies on the call back feature using which the connection has to be extended from the user’s existing phone to the called party; incoming number portability is still a non-available feature in Google Voice. As this is another important drawback of Google Voice, Google Voice is not likely to replace other VoIP services completely all on a sudden.
Though it can be said that there would no problem for other VoIP services from Google Voice for now, Google with its master network would be able to work wonders anytime getting all advanced features in to Google Voice. So other parties always need to be careful and have them updated. However, Google Voice has not yet become the master of outbound calling industry. So there are still possibilities for others to upgrade themselves without having to loose and struggle later. In short, for a basic use Google Voice can be called the bets as they are not only easy to handle but can be called the best.