Several years after the last major update to Google Voice, it appears that the millions of users who rely on the service have finally managed to draw some attention to themselves.

Google today released new web and mobile versions of the app that aim to up the ante against its numerous rivals in the voice-over-IP market. The biggest addition is a revamped design that replaces the service’s outdated navigation menus with a sleek interface more on par with Gmail, Hangouts and the search giant’s other top-priority products.

The refreshed layout brings with it several improvements that may seem fairly standard at first glance but represent a much-needed upgrade for Google Voice users. Among other things, calls, voicemails and texts are now organized under separate tabs instead of an unwieldy unified inbox as before. Individual conversations are also displayed in threats to let users easily view their interactions with each contact. Although the implementation is different, this feature serves the same basic purpose as the threaded messaging function that Slack Technologies Inc. introduced last week.

Google claims that reading alerts is now easier as well. Images appear directly in conversations, while mobile users can easily directly respond to messages via the notification screen. Furthermore, sharing media content has also becomes simpler thanks to new support for photo MMS messaging. 

The final major addition on the feature front is group texting. According to The Verge, multi-recipient interactions have been a longstanding weak point for Google Voice that today’s update manages to address quite effectively. Users can keep track of their communications using a built-in labeling feature that clearly distinguishes group conversations in the application interface. These features are joined by several smaller changes, including support for Spanish in the service’s voicemail transcription function.

Although users are set to see a noticeable improvement in their calling experience thanks to today’s overhaul, some may have doubts about the future of Google Voice given the long intervals between updates so far.

To try to alleviate these concerns, the search giant indicated in today’s launch announcement that new features will be released on a more regular basis going forward. It was reported last year that one of the top items on Google’s agenda is adding support the RCS protocol meant to replace SMS as the default texting option for mobile devices.

Image courtesy of Google