Honestly, this is just awesome. I now have my Google Voice number, along with my regular T-Mobile number, but I can one of the best features of Voice without the need to switch numbers. I was planning on eventually migrating over just to a Google Voice number, but informing all your contacts of a new number is more painful than you would think.
For a little preview of how Google Voicemail works, check out this
Officially from Google:
Google Voice is all about enabling choice: which phone you pick up your calls on, where to review your voicemail messages, how to send and reply to text messages, etc. So when it comes to your phone number, it was logical for us to also offer a choice of which number to use with Google Voice.
Previously, when you created a Google Voice account, we asked you to select a new Google phone number. This allowed us to offer features like call forwarding, screening, and recording. But we know not everyone wants to start using a new phone number, so we've been working on another option for people who are willing to trade some features for the ability to keep their existing number.
We're excited to announce that you now can get Google Voice with a Google number OR with your existing mobile phone number. If you choose to use Google Voice with your existing number, you won't get some features (like call screening and recording), but you'll still get many others -- including Google voicemail. If you already have a Google number, this new feature should also help with the transition to your new number, as you can now forward unanswered calls to your mobile phone to your Google Voice account. This way, people who still call your old number will reach the same voicemail as people who call your Google Voice number.
