Users of Google Voice will now be able to send Multimedia Message Service (MMS) picture messages to one another, a feature that was not supported by the largest mobile networks.
USA Today has reported that Google seems to have worked out a deal with several mobile carriers to offer full MMS service capability for Google Voice.
According to Ars Technica , the long-awaited upgrade to the Google Voice app was announced by senior software engineer Alex Wiesen in a post on his Google+ account. Wiesen pointed out that Google has worked with a number of mobile carriers to ensure that MMS messages would be carried free of charge on their networks.
Wiesen’s Google+ post, which received 1072 +1, 380 shares and 238 comments, noted that users of Google Voice should anticipate further upgrades to the app.
“We’ve been working with nearly 100 different North American carriers to enable this feature — including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Bell Canada, Rogers, Telus, and many more — and starting today all these integrations are live. So enjoy those incoming pics, say goodbye to fomo (fear of missing out), and stay tuned for more Google Voice messaging improvements.”
The announcement is a welcomed one for many Google Voice users who prior to this would not have been able to send and receive MMS messages. Chance Miller, a tech writer with 9to5Google , explained that Google Voice users didn’t see MMS messages as intended; instead, they arrived as SMS messages. Depending on the carrier, they’d either come with a link to the originally attached image or no indication that an image was ever attached.
This, however, will no longer be a problem for Google Voice users, as the newly-announced MMS capabilities have been activated on all major carriers except Verizon .
According to the Inquisitr , Google announced last year that Google Voice would be integrated with Google Hangouts and that it would be cracking down on third-party applications that made use of the service.
Google Hangouts also had an announcement of its own. Late last week, Google announced the introduction of its Hangouts Chrome App for Chrome OS and Windows.
A blog post by Google Software Engineer David Levin outlined that the main feature of the app is Google Voice integration, which allows users to make and receive calls, and get voicemails and SMS messages directly in Hangouts.
As Google continues to upgrade its Google Voice app, we eagerly await the other changes that will come with MMS capabilities.
[Image via Google]
