Here Are the New Updates Coming to Google Voice

On January 23rd, Google announced that it was finally updating Google Voice across its Android, PC, and iOS apps. Yet according to a recent post on the company’s blog, the app hasn’t been updated in five years: which begs the question, why update now? Do the improvements make the app worth downloading?

In case you need a refresher: Google designed Google Voice with the idea that a phone number can be connected to you, not your device. This means that you can access all of your texts, messages, and voicemails on any device that can support the cloud-based app.

What changes were made to the app?

The app has a new, sharper layout to match the growing trend in minimalist tech design, as well as to keep everything in the app more organized. The redesigned app also works seamlessly with Google’s other apps and services.

With the updated app, you can now easily check messages, voicemails, and contacts all in one place. At the top of the app are three tabs, with icons for messages, calls, and voicemail. Updates have been made for in-notification replies to messages, and functionality now includes group- and photo-messaging. Within the voicemail tab, you can now also receive auto-generated text transcripts. There’s even a Spanish transcription feature (although this feature is still in the beginning stages).

Why is Google updating the app now?

Unfortunately, this is still unclear. As mentioned earlier, the company hasn’t touched the app in about five years. Android has been in dire need of a better all-in-one communication app — and Google Voice could provide this — but the app is still far behind its competitors in sophistication.

Nonetheless, Google is hoping to further improve how incoming communication is handled by  users, not only within the app, but for Android as a whole. It may be hoping that Google Voice will replace and absorb a few of its own apps, like Hangouts, as it makes further improvements — though Google Voice is still far behind Hangouts in its range of features. However, if Google commits to creating new updates on a regular basis, Google Voice is bound to catch up with the competition in mobile messaging.