A few years ago I was lucky enough to land a Grandcentral account just before it was sold to Google. Grandcentral was (and continues to be under the Google Voice brand) a service which allowed one to get a universal phone number which could then be forwarded to other phones and devices. It also included an expanded voicemail service for that number, and more recently, as Google Voice was rolled out, great integration of SMS messages, including transcription of voicemail messages which are then texted to your cellphone.

Today Google announced that they were making the voicemail available to ANY number, allowing one to use Google’s service rather than their standard phone company provided voicemail. I switched over, and so far it seems real cool, especially since my voicemails are texted to me, allowing me to check them under the table to determine their importance. I encourage you to check this out.

Official Google Blog: Use Google Voice with your existing number