14 DAY TRIAL // Google Voice is one of Google's best, if not exactly the most lauded, products. It completely transforms phone communications, from the inside out and gives users, perhaps for the first time, a bit of flexibility and power over the big telcos that generally get to do what they want.
That said, like many of the best things on the web, Google Voice is only available in the US.
It's been that way for years and European users, along with everyone else, watched jealously as Americans got new features and perks and they got nothing.
But that may finally change, according to The Next Web who talked to Google's European Director of Business Development, Jens Redmer.
The exec made some very promising and straight-forward statements, Google Voice is coming to Europe and the company is already testing it internally.
Specifically, he said that Google is taking "concrete action" in bringing Voice over to the old continent.
Which could mean either that it's actively working, at this very moment, to launch the service, or that it [i]wants to bring Google Voice over to Europe, which Google has never exactly denied.
But Google is already testing it internally, so at least we know there is some progress.
That's about it for the good news though, while Google says Voice is coming to Europe, it can't set a date. Likely, it won't be any time soon, Google doesn't make a habit of disclosing upcoming products.
If a Google Voice launch in Europe was imminent, the company would probably be quiet about it.
There are two ways of interpreting the new details. The optimistic version is that Google is indeed working on bringing Voice to Europe and that it's now putting the finishing touches and overcoming the non-technical hurdles.
The pessimistic version is that Google has always intended to bring Voice to Europe and that there hasn't been any progress lately, again, since it's not the technical aspect that's keeping Google from launching Voice more widely.