Google Voice Now Available With Your Existing Number
Google has announced that its Google Voice service is now available with your existing phone number. Previously, you have to get a new Google Voice number in addition to your existing number. The new service lacks some Google Voice features such as call screening, call recording and call blocking but it does include Google's voicemail features.
Previously, when you created a Google Voice account, we asked you to select a new Google phone number. This allowed us to offer features like call forwarding, screening, and recording. But we know not everyone wants to start using a new phone number, so we've been working on another option for people who are willing to trade some features for the ability to keep their existing number.
We're excited to announce that you now can get Google Voice with a Google number OR with your existing mobile phone number. If you choose to use Google Voice with your existing number, you won't get some features (like call screening and recording), but you'll still get many others -- including Google voicemail:
Google Voice will allow people to bypass the voicemail services provided by the user's phone company. This could deal a financial blow to the telephone companies if enough people switch to Google Voice. Bits calls the new service Google Voice "lite" and notes that some tech bloggers had already figured out how to use Google Voice without switching phone numbers.
