At last! I got my invitation to try out Google Voice.
What is Google Voice? It is a new service from Google that allows you to make the most of your telephonic experience.
How?, you ask.
Below is a list of some of the cool and useful features discovered thus far.
1. One Number….Forever: Google Voice lets you choose a phone number (from those available) that is tied to you as a person. Your GV number will stay the same even if you switch to a different landline or cell phone provider. However, if you decide you would like to change your Google Voice (GV) number, you can do so for a one-time fee of $10 USD.
2. Visual Voicemail: I’ve been waiting for this since it was first debuted on the iPhone. You can listen to your voicemail on your phone or online. GV will even transcribe (voice to text) the messages left for you and then send an SMS text to your phone.
3. One Ring to Rule Them All: The service lets you tie your GV number to as many phones as you wish (I haven’t found a limit yet). When someone calls your GV number, all of the phones ring at the same time. You can answer on any of the phones and even switch between them while on the call.
4. Contact Specific Settings: You can record special greetings for each your contacts in your GV account to hear when they call you. You can even organize your contacts into groups so you can keep your family, friends, and co-workers separate.
5. Your Own Personal 9-1-1: By combining features 3 and 4 above, I’ve found a good way to use my GV number for my family in case of emergencies. I added my family members as contacts in GV and associated them all with a group called “family”. I then edited the ring settings of the group to ring my work and cell phone (could have added my landline if I had one). Next I sent an email to all of my family members distributing my GV number, using GMail of course. Now when any of my family members calls my GV number, it will ring all of my phones at one time and reach me as fast as possible should the need arise. Pretty slick.
Other slick but rather interesting features include call screening via call presentation, listening in on the caller as they are leaving you a voicemail, as well as recording a phone call with the ability of listening to the recording later online.
What are you waiting for? Sign up for an invite and learn more about Google Voice here.
Google Voice
glory by the gram 