Mountain View, California — Are you fed up of shuffling away from Gmail to navigate and listen to your Google Voice messages? Well, Google on Thursday lifted that tedious task by adding a new feature in Gmail labs that allows you to play Google Voice voicemails right from Gmail.
“Previously, clicking on ‘Play Message‘ opened a new page in your browser, but starting today, you can play voicemails right in Gmail,” Vincent Paquet, Google Voice product manager, wrote in a blog post.
If you are not closely acquainted with Google Voice, Google compares it to Gmail for phone calls and text message. In a long awaited feature of Google Voice was a simple one: forward inbound text messages to email. Google Voice users get voicemails auto-transcribed and emailed to them, but text messages were not.
But from now onwards all that has changed. Google Voice users now have the ability to forward inbound text messages to email. And even better, you can reply from email as well.
“Google Voice helps you manage your communications with a unique phone number that rings all your existing phones, a single voicemail inbox with online access and automated transcription, and lots of other handy features like the ability to block spammy calls and easily record personalized greetings for your callers,” explains Paquet.
However, remember that for some consumers, with limited text messaging budgets or plans, the new feature allows them to turn off SMS notification to their phone in Google Voice and receive and reply to SMS messages by email, saving on SMS costs. That would work for people who spend lots of time in front of their PCs, but also people who have mobile email and similarly wish to economize on use of text messaging.
The feature can easily be switched on and off from the call settings page. Google Voice has for a while supported text message capabilities from either mobile phone or PC.
To activate, select the Gmail Labs tab under Settings and when you get a voicemail notification, the player will appear below the message. Google will also sync your messages — if you listen to the message online, it will not show up as new when you check messages on your phone.
Watch this video here to see how it works:
Google Voice is available on an invitation-only basis for the time being. However, invitations can be requested here.