Google Voice Leaves Beta, Now Open to Everyone [News]: “

Until today, Google Voice was a neat service you needed an invite to get into. Now Googles thrown open the doors, letting anyone who wants One Number to Rule Them All—or just web-based voicemail on your current number.

Google’s long-term plans for Voice has been an interesting exercise in educated guesses. Google acquired the clever GrandCentral service, then did nothing for what seemed like a long time. Then Google Voice emerged, under limited beta, and started shutting down GrandCentral. After that, the Voice team acquired VoIP service Gizmo5, and shut down new sign-ups there, too. Just this morning, we updated our guide to updated our guide to making free Google Voice calls—with no idea what would come an hour later.

Head over to Google Voice and activate your free account with a Google log-in. You’ll get to choose between keeping your existing number and upgrading it with Google Voicemail, or taking on a new main Google Voice number, one that can ring your cell, home and office lines, desktop VoIP setup, and allow for web-based texting without any charges and pretty cheap international calls. Number portability, and no-setup web calls, are potentially on the way.

Here’s our best advice on eaing the transition to Google Voice. We also recently rounded up all our prime Google Voice coverage, and that’s worth a look for newcomers.

Tell us what you think of Voice, now that you’ve finally got a free crack at it, in the comments. What’s the coolest feature you hadn’t heard about? What still needs implementing?

(Via Lifehacker.)