Google wants to make voice communications easier to manage by introducing a new service that will transcript voicemail messages as soon as they’ve been received. Transcriptions can then be seen in the user’s inbox, and at the user’s choice, they can even be e-mailed or sent to them by SMS.

Transcriptions are automated, and may still include mistakes, Google said, but they are working on improving that. The service, called Google Voice, will be available to existing users of GrandCentral initially, the company added.

Google Voice will improve the way people use their phones, Google said, adding that the service can be used to make low-priced international calls and to access Goog-411 directory assistance. The feature can be turned off from the settings panel.

Over the next few days, GrandCentral users will receive instructions on their GrandCentral inbox on how to use Google Voice. Other users will also benefit from this service, but at a later date, the company also added.

GrandCentral, the service that Google acquired in July 2007, is a free Internet service that uses VoIP to link customers’ numbers. However, the service works not only with VoIP lines, but also with cell phones and desk phones.

“Voicemail can be a pretty negative experience for a lot of people,” Craig Walker, group product manager of real time communications at Google and co-founder of Grand Central, told the BBC. “Now it’s about putting the user in control. Voicemail will no longer be the chore it has been in the past.”