Sprint and Google have just announced that all Sprint customers can now use Google Voice for free, with or without changing their mobile number. In other words, you can:
- Continue using your Sprint number, but now when people call you can get automated transcripts of messages forwarded to your email inbox and you can configure Google Voice to ring your home and office lines whenever someone calls your cellphone.
- Existing Google Voice users can replace their Sprint number with their Google Voice number when making calls or sending text messages from Sprint.
All in all, this means that Sprint customers can use Google Voice without installing any sort of app. That means Google Voice isn’t limited to Google Android phones or other devices which offer Google Voice apps.
The feature will roll out soon to Sprint customers in the US. You can sign up to switch to Google Voice at google.voice.com/sprint.
This is the first time Google has partnered directly with a carrier — and it seems like a good indication that Google and Sprint hope to maintain a good relationship moving forward. In the past, Google’s flagship phones have launched first on the T-Mobile network. That includes the first Android phone, the G1, and the Google Nexus One and Nexus S developer handsets. Now that AT&T is acquiring T-Mobile, maybe Sprint will be the carrier that gets first crack at Google Nexus phones?
Google has announced that a new Google Nexus S 4G will be available from Sprint soon. The phone will run Google Android 2.3 and feature a 1 GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor and 16GB of storage. It will be similar to the Samsung Nexus S which is currently available from T-Mobile, but it will support Sprint’s 4G wireless network. The phone will be available this spring for $199.99 with a 2-year contract.
Be leery of that word FREE, because it is far from FREE.
Here is the small print
Standard Sprint Data, Text, and Any Minute rates apply to Google Voice use on Sprint phones.