Google reportedly set to integrate Google Voice features and VoIP calling into Hangouts
Google is soon dropping Google Voice and rolling it into the Hangouts apps on both Android and iOS, according to a recent report.
With certain Google Voice functionality already making its way onto the
Hangouts apps and more recently SMS integration for Android, it looks
as though Google will continue to expand its all-in-one communications
app as expected.
Google has been slowly integrating many of its communication services into Google Hangouts,
before the Voice functionality overlaps and SMS integration, we saw
both Messenger and Talk roll over as well. Like the report mentions, it
is likely we will be seeing more of this type of consolidation from
Google down the line as more and more of these types of services get
rolled into a single application. Apple has also been bringing more of
its communications services and features into a more unified location
with respect to FaceTime and iMessages.
Another interesting feature said to be a possibility here is that we
could see the phone calling via VoIP functionality available on Gmail
through the web slide over into Hangouts, according to the report. This
could potentially allow users to have a fully enabled smartphone with
just a data plan, likely something carriers will not take kindly to.
At this point there is no official word on this, but we could see an
announcement in the coming months just in time for Google I/O.
