Google lends its Voice to US smartphones

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Google is bringing its Voice application to Android and BlackBerry users, though the service is still limited to the US.

Google Voice provides a single number for all your phones - such as home, work and mobile - and lets you redirect the call to all your phones, or specific ones depending on who's calling. It also lets you pick up voicemail over phones or computer and provides text transcripts of messages.

Google obtained the service last year from Grand Central and has been rolling it out to users on an invitation only basis, the same method it used when it launched services such as Gmail.

The move to smartphones makes the most sense, as now users can make calls using their Google Voice numbers as well. Users will make the calls specifically from an app on either the Android or Blackberry handheld, but their Google Voice number will show up on the other side. This means that others no longer have to store multiple numbers to identify a caller.

Google Voice for the iPhone is reported to be on the way, though no time-scale has been announced.

With the service starting to mature, IT PRO put in a call to Google in the UK to find out when the service might be coming here, and a spokeswoman told us that Google UK had no plans to make an announcement, refusing to even confirm if Google Voice will ever arrive on these shores.

The reasons for the delay could be numerous according to Rob Bamforth, principal analyst at Quocirca. "It could be a matter of timing. In Europe we have a number of operators, and it's a competitive landscape. [Also] Google can sometimes be viewed as a threat and a challenger - the operators could view Google as trying to undermine their propositions".

Google Voice integrates voice to text transcription, and Bamforth suggested that the number of languages could be a factor. "In the US they just have to deal with English and Spanish. In Europe, it's a much bigger challenge".

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