Google Voice is yet another product from the search giant (is that still relevant to what they do anymore?). I am a big proponent of Google Voice and push it on most of my geeky friends. Traditionally Google Voice is a service you sign up for and register a new number with Google. The cool part is that you get to pick your number (for example something with Jon in it, or callme, or pick a certain area code). But that is just the beginning.
You then register any phones you want – your cell, your work number, you home line. And if people call your google number it can ring any phone you register. You can set it up to call your work line from 9-5 on weekdays, home on weeknights, and your cell on weekends. You can set up different voicemails for different people. Imagine calling someone and hearing “hey Jon – sorry I can’t take your call, leave a message”. You can also have google transcribe your voicemails and email or text them to your phone. Finally, one of the features I like best – you can have numbers not in your address book go straight to voicemail, or force them to state their name before you answer. This handles telemarketers pretty well.
Plus, there are other cool features like downloading voicemails and recording calls.
If this doesn’t make sense just watch the video:
What stopped many people from using it was that they didnt want to have to give a bunch of people a new phone number. However, if you just want the voicemail features – which is most of Google Voice- Google has found a way around that. Today they announced you could simply work around your current provider’s voicemail.
After joining Google Voice you just choose that you want to keep your own number – and Google gives you a code to enter into your phone which forwards calls to your number to their voicemail system. It basically just skips your voicemail and puts any calls you miss into Google Voicemail. You get all the neat features like transcription, listening to them on the computer, having some calls go straight to voicemail- etc.
Again the video:
I’ve looked into using this myself, and found just a few caveats.
First, I have an iphone. So, I get visual voicemail already. Having them in my inbox doesn’t really change anything. In fact, I think it is easier to check my voicemail without opening the browser and navigating to google Voice first, or calling my google voice number without visual notices.
Second, the way the iphone handles the voicemail file is that it plays it as a media file. This mean the iphone plays it as a song over your speaker instead of in the earpiece. No more private voicemail listening!
Could this be fixed? Probably. The Google Voice app that Apple has so far rejected, and the FCC is looking into would probably help. If I could just go into the Google Voice app to see my voicemails that would eliminate the hassle.
There is one final caveat that bothers me. Gmail – Google’s email service – goes down not irregularly. Often enough that they have put up a “status site” so you can check if it is down at any given time. It would bother me if Voicemail was down and not available on a normal basis. Whether this service is separated enough from Google’s more internet based services is a good inquiry.
With those points noted – if you are a traditional feature phone user (not a Blackberry, iPhone, Windows Phone, or Android user) then this might be really useful to you. You can have the voicemails texted to you or read them on your computer. You won’t be missing any “visual voicemail” features. It might be a great option!
Interested? Go to Google Voice here.
