Starting today, Google Voice is open to the public. No need for an invitation. Google Voice is a service provided by Google that lets users customize their telephone experience by giving them one number that can forward to a number of different devices based on user preferences such as time of day or the contact who is calling. The service also provides a voicemail box which users can access not only on their phones, but on the web as well. It even has text transcribed voicemails for those times where you can’t listen to each one.

I’ve fully switched over to using Google Voice about 6 months ago and I love it. Using the Google Voice Android app, I get text messages, low international call rates and voicemails that I can read. The app is just as seamless as any other Google application on Android phones and is tightly integrated so you don’t even have to think about using it. The service was especially useful when I had to travel abroad for an extended time. I didn’t have to switch to a new cell phone or give my friends a new number, I just forwarded all of my calls to Skype and used Fring to make low cost data calls on my existing phone.

If you haven’t given Google Voice a try, go ahead and sign up now and see for yourself. Its got tons of cool features and is worth a look.

(Unless you are outside the US. Unfortunately the service is still US only.)

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Source: Official Google Blog