Google has been slowly incorporating more features into its Google Hangouts messaging feature. Hangouts started out as a video conferencing tool within Google’s own social network, Google+, but has since made the jump to Gmail and Android as full-fledged messaging features. The new Hangouts was officially launched at Google I/O in 2013 and pulls Hangouts, Google+ Messenger, and Google Talk into one application. Now, it looks like Google might be rolling Google Voice into Hangouts, too.
According to Droid-Life, Google has started prompting users to migrate their Google Voice to Hangouts. This message is appearing on both desktop and mobile and invites users to opt-in to receive Google Voice voicemail and SMS message via Hangouts
In October of last year, Google’s Nikhyl Singhal offered an update on Google Voice. In his role as Google+ product manager, Singhal oversees Hangouts and Photos. Speaking via Google+, he said that it would ‘take some time’ before Google Voice is fully integrated into Hangouts, and support for Google Voice SMS in Hangouts was rumoured to be coming this year.
Google has confirmed the integration of the two services alongside an addition to Hangouts for Android allowing users to make free calls to other Hangouts users, or to regular phones at a discounted rate.
[source]Droid-Life, Android Police[/source]
