A while back I signed up for GrandCentral, which was bought up by Google and recently rebranded/upgraded as Google Voice. I’m going to talk about the SMS features, as that’s all I’ve messed with so far. There are plenty of other reviews of Google Voice, and you can request an invite here.

It appears the final goal is to have voicemails and SMS messages show up in Gmail, but for now you have to log in to the Google Voice interface. Sending text messages is dead simple, and if you have all your contacts’ info in Gmail (or synced with your OSX address book) you can simply click the SMS button and type the person’s name. Messages show up in a thread-like display, and you can archive and mark as read as you would a Gmail message.

There are a couple of things that I’m hoping will be improved with the SMS interface. One of those things is the SMS notifications. If you have your Google Voice number linked to a cell phone (as I do) by default you will receive any SMS messages sent to Google Voice on your cell phone as well as in the web interface. This is ideal if you’re not at your computer, but what if you’re sitting there with your browser open? It seems counter-intuitive to read SMS messages on your phone and in the interface. What I’ve been doing is disabling SMS notifications in the Settings > Phones > Edit when I’m at the computer. But what if you forget to do this, or don’t re-enable it when you leave the computer? You’ll either end up with double notifications or none at all.

Another item that is slightly confusing is, when someone sends an SMS to your Google Voice number, it shows up on your phone as being from some random 406 number. This is so that when you reply to the message it gets routed through Google rather than through your cell provider, and Google explains it here. Makes sense, but still confusing.

Overall, very promising, particularly from the SMS side. I like not having to get my phone out when I get an SMS…I can just stay at my computer and get to the SMS when I want to. I’m not going to port my number over just yet, but would entertain the idea if the features continue to improve.