Google Voice app updated with Smart Replies

Yes! | Great, thanks | OK

With everything going on the past few years, 2017 can feel like an eon ago. It's not, though! It was just five years ago when Google gave Google Voice a much-needed coat of paint and promised not to let it fall into disrepair again. Unlike many of Google's promises, this one has been upheld. The app still gets updates, like the one rolling out now with Smart Replies for SMS and a few other goodies.

Google just updated the Play Store listing with the following changelog.

• Smart reply: providing suggestions to outgoing SMS messages.
• Call-to-Listen voicemail access can now be enabled, along with PIN creation, from within settings.
• You can now long press on the Voice app launcher to easily place calls or send texts.

The top item is certainly the most important. Google's AI-assisted replies have proven quite useful in Messages, Allo (RIP), and others. The app and its notifications can now guess at an appropriate reply like, "yes" or "not yet," allowing you to quickly fire off a response (see below for an example from Messages). The addition of long-press icon functionality is nice to have, as well. I don't personally see the appeal of Call-to-Listen voicemail access when it's all built into the app, but that's now an option, too.

Google tends not to update the Play Store changelogs on time, and as such, some of these features might have appeared unannounced in a previous version of the app. We're confident this is a recent addition, though. If you haven't popped Voice open lately, take a look.

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