Like it or not it seems Google+ is here to stay as Google moves to integrate yet another service into the social network. If you thought that the outrage over Google+ comments merging with YouTube was bad just wait until the company’s extremely popular Google Voice becomes integrated into Hangouts, part of the Google+ network.
Google Voice the free VOIP phone call, texting voicemail and voicemail-transcription service will soon merge with Hangouts both on iOS and Android and eliminating Google Voice as a separate product.
Fans of Google Voice have already taken to Twitter to protest their concerns over the merge and the impact it may have on the service. Others are just angry at being tied into Google+ as they don’t wish to use Google’s social network.
Google recently suffered embarrassment when it’s Hangout service suffered a prolonged outage on Monday which is unlikely to inspire any confidence in the merger between Google Voice and Hangouts.
The idea of Google Voice and Hangouts merging shouldn’t come as a surprise as Google did hint at this being a possibility way back in May last year when Google+ Product Manager Nikhyl Singhal said:
"Hangouts is designed to be the future of Google Voice, and making/receiving phone calls is just the beginning. Future versions of Hangouts will integrate Google Voice more seamlessly."
So far there is no word on when this merger will take place but with Google’s I/O conference coming up in a few months time we could expect to hear this announced during this time.
What do you think about the planned merger between these two Google services? Have you embraced Google+ or are you trying to avoid it like the plague? As usual we would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.
