Late last year one of my colleagues was telling me about Google Voice (in private beta then) and I had him send me an invite so I could check it out. I signed up, got a Google Voice Phone Number and played with it, but I never really used it. However, recently I decided to go ahead and use it. As I began traveling more abroad this year and being in so many different time zones it became pretty much impossible for all my friends, family and colleagues to know which number to try to reach me on and worse, which time of day to call. As you might imagine I got some middle of the night (my time) phone calls from people that just didn't know what time it was where I was. Of course I could have turned off my cellphone, but I just never felt comfortable doing that in case there was an emergency back home. So I really got going on Google Voice. Recently I sent out an email to all the people that call me regularly and gave them the ONE new number to reach me on no matter what. This way I could control which number(s) the Google Voice number would ring (Work, personal cell, work cell, VoIP, Hotel Front Desk, etc.) and setup different rules and greetings by individual or group. I could also use the "Do Not Disturb" feature for those times when I would be asleep. This way everyone except immediate family members (that still knew my direct phone number) would be sent to voicemail during those times when I couldn't answer. Also if I don't have you in my contacts you're greeted with a request to say your name. This cuts telemarking calls way down.
Simultaneous Ring and other coolness
One of the features I like most is the fact that you can have the one Google Voice number forwarded to multiple numbers simultaneously. So for example, when I'm at home I have it forwarded to my office line (Vonage) and my cellphone. That way when the phone rings I can pick up whichever phone is closest. Voicemail is killer! Not only can you record multiple greetings that stay in the system and assign them to individual contacts or groups, but you can have the voicemail messages received forwarded to your email. You can also play them back on the web and you can have them transcribed as text automatically. SMS Texting/Forwarding: You can also do SMS via your phone or via the website. Once you log into Google Voice you can either import your contacts or sync them. You can select a contact and start doing SMS texting right there on the website (both sending and receiving).
It's great, but not quite perfect
Although the benefits far outweigh the issues, Google Voice still needs a few more things and tweaks to make it perfect. One of the biggest issues I have is that while it will forward SMS messages sent to your Google Voice number to your cellphone, it doesn't yet forward MMS messages. Not only does it not forward them, it doesn't even tell you that you were sent one nor does it warn the sender that it didn't go through. That's just bad! So I have to still have people send MMS directly to one of the cellphones I'm carrying. Luckily I don't get that many from that many people so it's manageable. The other problem I have is that you have no control over the number of rings before a call is sent to Voicemain. Instead it's based on the number of seconds (25 seconds). So you have to make sure that your other phones have the voicemail disabled or set to ring longer.
Now you can get it too and it's FREE!
The funny thing was earlier this week when I planed on blogging about this, I kinda felt bad because I'd be telling you about this great service that you couldn't get because it was a private beta. However, as of Tuesday Google Voice just opened up to the public (US Numbers Only). So you can get your own Google Voice number for FREE here.
You can pick your number based on the area code that you want or you can even one based on words like 55-CallTerry <-no that won't reach me 🙂
If you pick a custom number using words, you may not get it in the area code you want, but these days does it really matter that much?
Here's a quick video overview by Google
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOZU7BOeQ58
Thank You Terry – yes this is GROOVY! VM Google 🙂
Unless you live outside the USA, in which case you will receive this message:
“Google Voice is not available in your country.
Thanks for visiting Google Voice. We’re not yet open for users outside the US, but are planning to expand our service to additional countries in the future.”
Sadly, this is very typical for those of us outside the USA.
I’ve been using it google voice for a few weeks now and I seem to like it so far.
Not available in Canada yet either, i am getting the same message as posted by John, “Google Voice is not available in your country.
Thanks for visiting Google Voice. We’re not yet open for users outside the US, but are planning to expand our service to additional countries in the future.” I cant believe this i can drive from here to the States in a few hours.
Thanks for the info Terry! I can certainly see how this would be of benefit to me!
Terry,
What is your take on the call quality? I read another review that said it wasn’t that great and there is a bit of a significant delay.
I never even thought about call quality because I never noticed a difference at all. So I guess there’s your answer.
I’ve had GV for several months now… love it. The voice mail transcription, while not perfect is a great feature for some one who does not answer a cell phone during meetings.
I have had some quality issues though. In particular once in a while a DTMF tone sounds during a call as if I hit a key on the phone keypad by mistake. There are several blog entries about this on the Google support forum, and they have called the problem ‘difficult to track down’
That said it is a good service.
I wonder what happens if I have it set to ring home and cell at the same time, and both phones get answered. Instant conference call? LOL.
I signed up for a number too. I’ll have to test it out.
Thanks for the article. I don’t travel much myself, so I hadn’t realized the time-zone, control your calls aspect. That’s great. I’ve also not been able to understand why cellular companies haven’t adopted a GV-like feature set, letting their customers ring their wired home phone when a call comes in to their wireless phone. Cellular service inside homes is often so poor, double ringing would be a plus and reduce complaints.
There are negatives. I’ve had GV for over a year, but haven’t used it much because it doesn’t play nice with my MagicJack line. When MJ is offline, it grabs all calls to its voice mail, defeating any ringing elsewhere. MJ keeps promising to do the obvious–let users disable voice mail–but as recently as yesterday when I talked to a MJ rep, it has yet to happen.
You might want to do a follow-up article on tricks for tweaking GV on the go. My understanding is that Apple’s rejection of the GV iPhone app makes that harder than it ought to be. With a good app and preset situations, configuration should be doable in a few seconds.
What are call rates for callers when they call your Google Voice number?
What about need to pay to Google or mobile carrier for the forwarded calls?
Call rates to call my Google voice number are no different than the rates to call any other number in my area code. No more, no less.
Same for forwarding. Google Doesn’t charge and you’re only paying what you would pay (if anything) to forward to any other number. Google or non-Google.