Google Voice, an absolutely awesome product, has FINALLY gotten and update. The Voice mobile app (iOS and Android) got a visual update to to match Google's Material Design standard. Is this an important update? No....but yes.
The update doesn't provide any [major] new functions or features, but it means that Voice is NOT DEAD! Voice has not been updated in years. I have warned people not to get attached to it because all indications were that it had fallen out of favor with Google and would potentially be another addition to the Google graveyard.
As Google poured more and more resources into Hangouts, then Duo, then Allo, it appeared that Voice was going to be left out of Google's mobile / messaging platform.
I could be reading this all wrong (my crystal ball has failed me before), but it seems unlikely that Google would update a product just before axing it. Perhaps Google needs more voice data to support products like Google Home.
In any case, Voice is not dead yet!
Interested in learning more about Voice? Check out my previous post "10 Google Voice Tricks."
Google Voice is great for teachers. It provides a superb text-based "email" approach for student contacts. Strangely, for Google's superb Project Fi, Voice is deactivated with Hangouts substituted. Hangouts isn't as useful on the PC and has poor Google Contacts integration. Use Voice, if you can! Big win for Summmer School for example.
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