Don’t look now, but it appears that Google is plotting to get rid of Google Voice. As someone who uses that service as his main number, I started to freak out.
Except Google isn’t ditching the concept. Rather, Google will allegedly be consolidating it into the Hangouts app. Google has already merged Google+ Messenger, Google Talk, and even SMS functionality with the quite nifty Hangout app, so why not Voice? It makes sense for the messaging aspects of Voice to be in Hangouts, and while having the telephony bits in there seems illogical at first, it’s not really. After all, video calls are in there, so why not old school calling as well? Being able to manage everything in one spot takes away from a desire to install any third-party apps like Skype, WhatsApp, or (horror of horrors) Facebook Messenger. Basically, this is another way to keep you firmly ensconced in Google’s walled ecosystem.
It will be interesting to see how far Google takes this integration and how carriers react to the tighter integration of what’s essentially a competing telephone service. Will we eventually see the phone app in Hangouts too?
That’s not going to help me much. I use them for a phone # for a client. Booooo.