Following a settlement on visual voicemail patents, Google has shown a public preview of their voicemail transcription service to be integrated with GrandCentral over the next couple of days in a private beta. This is potentially bad news for third party providers like PhoneTag and Spinvox, who rely on paid subscriptions. I’m curious to see if you really do get what you pay for, or if Google Voice turns out to be just as accurate as the commercial offers. Some of the upcoming voicemail features include:
* Voicemail transcripts – Read what your voicemail says
* Listen to voicemail – Check online or from your phone
* Notifications – Receive voicemails via email or SMS
* Personalize greeting – Vary greetings by caller
* Share voicemail – Forward or download voicemails
Pretty awesome, and I would definitely be on-board if it worked in Canada. Bah. Check out Google Voice for more info.