For many fans, seeing Google Talk go off line was a sad day to be a user, but Google ushered us all into the future and gave us a new way to communicate with Hangouts. In an effort to bring all their services together, Google scrapped talk in favor of hangouts, and proceeded to integrate it with Google+ and Gmail. The only things missing bringing it full circle was SMS integration and integration with Google Voice, so you could have one direct app to house all your communications. SMS, Calls, and Hangouts(Formerly Talk). While we finally have full SMS integration baked in to the newest version, were still waiting on Google to implement its Voice integration which apparently won’t happen until some time next year.
Although the wait for voice integration into hangouts is a painful one, thanks to Koush(Koushik Dutta) from the Cyanogenmod development team, and his app Voice+, Google Voice integration within Hangouts will come to those that are running Cyanogenmod before the official Google roll out it seems. While it is not available yet, the Voice+ update is coming. But, what still remains to be discovered is whether or not it will only be available for those that are running the latest CM ROM (CM 11) or if it will be backwards compatible with those running older versions of Cyanogenmod that also have Voice+.
If you aren’t a CM user, than you may not know what Voice+ is. It’s an app developed by Koush to work with google voice, that allows you to receive and send texts through voice using third party messaging apps. As this feature is changing to allow hangouts integration, we will likely see some things change with its usability.
If you are running the latest version of the Cyanogenmod ROM which is currently 10.2, and based off of the latest build version of Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, there is still a chance of course that you may see this Voice+ update as well. It makes perfect sense though, to see Koush and the rest of the CM team bake it into the upcoming Cyanogenmod 11, which is based off of the newest version of Android, now 4.4 Kit Kat. As a current user of the 10.2 M1 release, i’m hoping to see this Voice+ update on my Nexus 4. If you are rooted, but running a stock ROM, do not expect to see this app available and working for you even in the event of a sideload as it is part of the CM ROM itself. Keep following our G+ page or just visit the site for the latest on Hangouts integration with Voice+ and when its available.