<p>In early July 2012, Google launched a big, unifying upgrade to Google Voice Actions and Voice Search, rolling it all into Google Now. You could ask your phone about the weather, glance at what was coming up and going on around you, and fire off text messages to friends with your voice.</p><p>Unless you were a Google Voice user. As reported in an Android issue on July 3, 2012, days before Google Now was actually available to non-developer-types, the new Google speech/search/action tool could take in your command ("Text Amy Where did you want to meet up?"), and even ask you if you wanted to use the standard Messaging or Google Voice to send the text. Choose Google Voice, however, and it didn't work. It didn't tell you that it didn't work, it just did not go through.</p><p>Bugs happen, even when the new Google search tool is trying to contact Google's own messaging service, on a Google-produced Galaxy Nexus phone. It took four months until the problem was half-fixed: you can send a text through Google Now if the voice-to-text works perfectly and you tap "Send message," but clicking the message to edit the text brings you into Google Voice with a blank message. It still does, as of yesterday, on my own Galaxy Nexus.</p><p>I've been using Google Voice roughly since it was available to the public in early 2009, less than two years after Google acquired the core Grandcentral service. After declaring Google Voice as my new singular number and working through the transition, I grew to appreciate many of its features, especially the voicemail transcriptions, the ability to send and receive unlimited text messages by phone or website, and recording incoming calls by tapping "4." The background knowledge that I can never lose my number to carrier mix-ups or lost phones is quite nice, too.</p><p><a href="http://www.itworld.com/mobile-wireless/361915/last-bit-google-voice-needs-fix-compatibility">Keep reading...</a></p>