Business VoIP Featured Article

Google Upgrading VoIP Calling Systems

January 17, 2017

By Steve Anderson, Contributing Writer

The idea that Google has a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service, Google Voice, may have gotten lost in the shuffle for many users, but new reports are elevating it back to a level of prominence. Those reports suggest that an upgrade may be in the works, and while there's a chance this may not ultimately go off, what's known so far suggests that something's up with Google's VoIP service.


The reports come from several of Google's VoIP users, noting that an upgrade link has been discovered, and this link noted new features for Google Voice's Web-based version. Actually following the link, though, just refreshed the page, leaving the user right where he or she started. Word from Google looked rather like a stone wall, with Google not talking about launch dates or any other details on this potential upgrade. However, the company did confirm that an update was in the works, so specifics will likely follow at some point ahead of that update's launch.

This in turn led some to posit that the message was just posted too early, and that upgrades were indeed on the way, though at some future date instead. Some users had thought Google had given up on its voice service, especially with so many other communications tools released from the company like Allo and Duo. Though updates had been light on the ground in 2016, several updates hit in 2015, and that suggests some potential new material was indeed planned for 2017.

Trying to second-guess a major technology's firms update schedule is a recipe for failure, but given what we know so far—the overall update schedule or lack thereof from 2016, the more regular updates seen previously, and the arrival of this new update link—it's not out of line to project new updates forthcoming. The VoIP calling space has proven to be packed with competitors, and even Google has to be either ready to compete, or ready to quit the field. Given that Google doesn't seem to be pulling the plug, it must want to compete, and it will need regular updates to do that. It hasn't been exactly regular on the updates of late, but that can all change with one good package.

It's hard to see Google wanting to walk away from Internet-based voice service, so we knew updates had to come out at some point. That point seems to have arrived, though without much more about what will be in the update, we could be looking at a winner...or a flash in the pan.




Edited by Maurice Nagle

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