Google Voice Is Getting More Organized With Update

Google announced Monday (Jan. 23) new updates to Google Voice, including a cleaner and more intuitive design.

In a blog post, Google said the new design keeps everything organized for users. Take the inbox, for one example. Google said it now has separate tabs for text messages, calls and voicemail. What’s more, conversations stay in one continuous thread so users can easily see messages from each of their contacts in one place. There is also now support for group and photo messaging and in-notification replies. It’s also starting to introduce voicemail transcription for Spanish and is aiming to improve accuracy with time.

Google noted that the updates aren’t the last for Google Voice apps. It said it will provide new updates and features in the coming weeks. The move on the part of Google comes at a time when it and its two biggest rivals are eyeing voice in a big way. As PYMNTS’ Karen Webster reported, Google, Amazon and Apple all recognize the ubiquity of voice and its application to a variety of use cases, especially commerce. Each of these players bring their own set of technologies and assets to the voice-activated party. And each of these players — who collectively account for more than $1.5 trillion in market cap — has a pretty big basket of assets and investment capital to throw into creating exhilarating ripples and wild tonics of voice-activated commerce for consumers and the merchants they like to shop. But assets and money alone won’t win the day. Winning the next big battle shaping up in commerce — the one that enables shopping via voice-activated personal assistants — will come down to how well they and others understand and then execute on one simple insight: How consumers decide what they want to buy in a digital world — and where they start that journey.