Google Voice getting the axe soon, merging with Hangouts

BY Valerie Richardson

Published 18 Mar 2014

Google Voice

Over the past few years, Google has been on the brink of shutting down most of its messaging apps and putting them in one convenient place. It now seems like the same treatment could be handed to Google Voice as well, which is the company’s free VoIP service available both on Android and iOS. You might remember that renowned developer Koush had worked on hacking a similar feature using Voice+.

Google recently ditched the Google+ Messenger and the Google Talk app to merge them within Hangouts. It went a step further and allowed users to use Hangouts as their default SMS application (Messaging), effectively cutting down the use of one more app. There’s no word on when the Google Voice integration will take place, but it is believed to be “months out” so users might not be able to see it anytime soon.

The merger of Google Voice with Hangouts isn’t exactly surprising having seen the fate of other such apps. However, this could prove to be a very controversial move by Google as the app allows users to make and receive VoIP calls right within the app using their Google number, which could raise an eyebrow or two from the carriers and regulators.

[Via 9to5Google]