Google Voice now available to the public

Google Voice, a free service that lets you combine your phones under one number, check voicemail anywhere and send and receive text messages without a phone, is finally open to the public after a year in exclusive invite-only status.

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Google's blog announced Tuesday morning that it would admit anyone who wanted to sign up, and not only those who had received invitations. (Despite this restriction, membership had grown to over a million active users.) "Today, after lots of testing and tweaking, we’re excited to open up Google Voice to the public," the blog said.

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCBP leaders cut out of Trump ad buy decision

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAmerican passenger drafted goodbye texts to her family as Flydubai plane plummeted

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation pushes embattled New York prosecutor into national spotlight

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

Service features include "one number to ring all your phones, voicemail that works like e-mail, free calls and text messages to the U.S. and Canada, low-priced international calls and more," said the post. In addition, the service allows you to send text messages from a Web app on your browser or on your smartphone.

The requirement of an invitation was not the only thing keeping people from the service, however. In order to use all of the services offered by Google Voice, you needed to use the phone number they gave you. This is still a requirement. It is not possible to port your number to the service, as you would when switching from one phone number to the next. Nevertheless, Google recently began offering voicemail and other limited services that people can use with their existing phone numbers.