Google Voice MMS has been up to now, non-existent. Although Voice is certainly a cool tool for texting, it has not been MMS enabled, leaving users without the ability to send and received pictures and videos.

With that then, support for Google Voice has been somewhat limited, but it is about to change with the roll-out of MMS support for the Voice users. Don’t expect it to happen all at once though, since the plan is a gradual roll out. If you have thus considered another tool for texting and multimedia sending and receiving, just be patient.

Sprint Users Have an Advantage

At this stage only Sprint users can user Google Voice MMS – that is only the Sprint sender. Receivers can be from any carriers. You must have email forwarding set for your Google Voice account. This will allow for forwarding of multimedia from the Sprint user to your GV email inbox facility.

Google furthermore plans to have the multimedia also receivable and visible in the GV inbox later on. This is what is meant with a gradual rolled out of MMS capabilities for Google Voice. When exactly it will happen is still a mystery.

Why Now?

Why Google has decided on rolling out MMS for Voice now is not a mystery. Speculation has it that it the whole launching is done in response to the iO 5 iMessage capabilities from Apple. Users can send and receive multimedia between them, and if Google waits too long to get on the wagon, the Voice users may easily migrate to Apple products.

To do it all, Google needs support of mobile operators. Sprint has made its willingness to support GV MMS, but is not the only one. Names such as Verizon and AT & T have been mentioned through the grapevine as carriers that will support GV MMS. Reports are still unconfirmed though.

The lack of multimedia sending and receiving capabilities has been criticized by GV users and is perhaps the single most requested feature of GV. Google listened and their teams have worked around the clock to enable such for Androids. If somebody now sends and MMS to a GV user it will get to the user through the inbox. The user must first activate text to mail forwarding in GV account. Once done, they can enjoy the modern world of pictures and videos shared through messaging.

Google has announced that at the beginning only Sprint phone users will be privileged enough to have Google Voice MMS, but some sites have reported that Virgin Mobile users can also enjoy the feature.

Numerous Requests for MMS

A quick look at the Google Help for GV section and you will notice hundreds of requests and some lengthy discussions about how useless Voice is without the multimedia functionality. Users have added requests for it for a long time now and frustration has built-up. Being slow to respond to user demands for MMS, Google Voice has lost a lot of cloud and had to get up to speed with Apple, if they didn’t want their Voice feature to lose all support.

How much of a difference it will make in usage stats is another mystery. Some users have indicated that they really don’t care. The fact that they can send and receive text messages for free has pretty much been the reason for their Google Voice support so far.

The younger crowd, especially the school kids, however, love to send MMS and since they still have a couple of years to go (thus the future generation of consumers), what they think counts. Google hopes to get more users on its Voice because of the little MMS feature.

Limited Service to be Expanded Soon

It is not a full blown multimedia service as there are still some complexities to deal with. Users don’t receive the MMS in their GV inbox directly, and email forwarding still applies. Google has indicated that they plan to change such in the near future. Sprint users certainly have an advantage, and even though the carrier has already made a deal with competitor Apple to be one of the iPhone providers, it has chosen to support the feature for Google. The sooner other carriers give their support, the quicker the complete roll-out can be.

Roll-Out Disappointment

A big bang roll out would have created the stir hoped for, but with a limited and gradual roll-out plan announced, the 14^th of October 2011 came and go with little excitement. The world didn’t stop turning and Apple users did not return their iPhone units for GV MMS enabled phones. Nobody switched carriers and there were no riots and no company take-overs.

One has to ask why Google has not put in a bit more to ensure a huge launch and a storm of the market. It may be because they don’t find MMS all that important or because they have die-hard Voice users who would have used them whether MMS is possible or not.

It seems that the hype may be a bit overstated. First there was Google Plus One, then Google Author Rank, and then Google Plus – alternative to Facebook and none have seemed to get the desired responses. Nothing has been overwhelming and the Google Voice MMS launch needed to be big to put down the Apple competition. It wasn’t, so users are still waiting for Google to roll-out something that will inspire them. The service will retain existing customers, but may not be what is needed to get more Voice users.

Exciting users have come to realize that most of them will have to wait a bit longer since carriers supporting the GV MMS are yet limited. Some more work will be needed and then a big re-launch might very well do the trick.

Although seemingly disappointing at first because of the long wait, Google has come through for its users, and being the giant it is, one can hope for a few new features to set Google Voice MMS apart from the rest.