In the incipient stages of the new service, Google will only offer voice-mail transcription to existing US customers of GrandCentral Communications, a provider purchased by the Web search giant back in 2007 for an undisclosed sum, rumored to be $50m in 2007.

 

One of the feats of the new service is the option of using a single Google number that can route incoming calls to home, office, and other numbers. Users can also filter calls before answering them, record conversations and access an archive of recordings and voice mail through the Web. 

 

And another thing, GrandCentral vowed to archive voicemail "for life" so you won’t have to delete any messages to make room for new ones. 

 

Since it was bought by Google, GrandCentral stopped accepting new customers, but it invited prospective customers to leave their e-mail address and they will be answered "in a matter of weeks," the company said. 

 

Through GrandCentral, Google gives users of its new service a lifelong universal phone number. 

 

"This could be big. They are a wild card in telecoms and wireless but this is Google and they are very smart at what they do,” said analyst Jon Arnold, according to News BBC. 

 

Google said the service it just launched is the only fully automated voice-mail transcription service on the market. Nevertheless, Skype has recently introduced a service that transcribes voice mail messages into SMS text messages via Spinox technology, also used by U.S. carriers such as Alltel, Cincinnati Bell and Rogers.