Google Voice has finally answered the dreams of its users and added the ability to use your existing phone number.

Ever since Google bought Grand Central, and changed the name of the service to Google Voice, users have expressed the desire to use their existing phone numbers as opposed to signing up for new ones.  This would cut out the headache of passing out a new phone number, and you could get the benefits of the service without having to print new business cards and so on.

Well, Google has finally added this ability to the service, and while it doesn’t deliver all of the features of the regular service yet, there are plans to add them in the future.  You can save your voice mails, star them, have them transcribed to text and so on, and even if you change phone companies, your voice mails will be saved in the Voice system for you.  You can also do things such as screening calls, listening to them before deciding to answer and more.

In short, for a free service (thus far), it is still amazing.  There is a short video below describing how the new system works.