Google Voice steps on carriers' SMS turf

Google Voice rolled out some interesting integrations and features this week, in its continuing attempt to take on other VoIP services and wireless carriers in a completely non-evil way. The main upgrade, the ability to forward inbound text messages to email [1], adds to the voicemail transcription functionality so that now, all mobile communications can be delivered to the inbox through the Google Voice service. What's more, once an SMS message is inbox, Google Voice provides the ability to reply to that message directly from an email.

Cue the carrier aggression, stage left. (Oh wait, they don't want more FCC hassles, right [2]? And they didn't have anything to do with removing the GVoice app, right? [3])

In addition to the SMS upgrade, Google Voice users can now access an audio file of their voicemails within the Gmail viewing window, where previously it would open the file in a pop out window. CNET's Rafe Needleman displays screenshots [4] of frankly terrible Google Voice voicemail transcriptions as evidence of how useful the in-window audio access can be. 

For more:
- see the Google Voice blog post on the SMS upgrade here [5] 

Related articles
Pros and cons of Google Voice from around the Web [6]
What's Google up to with Voice and other toys? [7]