Google is currently ‘dogfooding’ its telephony service Google Voice in Europe ahead of a planned launch outside the US, the company’s European Director of Business Development, Jens Redmer has just told The Next Web.
Redmer made a surprise appearance at the European Pirate Summit event in Cologne, Germany today to hold an ‘Ask Google’ session for the attending entrepreneurs. One question regarded when Google Voice, the telephony service offered in the US, would be more widely available. Redmer said that the company is taking “concrete action” on bringing Voice to Europe.
Redmer couldn’t give a precise launch date, noting that Google doesn’t preannounce products. He said that the launch didn’t only rely on engineers porting the product to work outside the US, but that telephony services additionally have potential legislative hurdles to pass.
After the session, Redmer told me that he is currently using Google Voice in Europe (‘dogfooding’ = ‘eating your own dogfood’, or ‘internal testing’ in everyday English) and he particularly enjoys the voicemail transcription service. Other Voice features currently offered in the US include the ability to have a single phone number for all your phones, wherever you are; call screening, and low-cost international calls.
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While we still don’t have a precise release date, it appears that the service is functional in Europe and most definitely on Google’s roadmap.
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