Google Voice and the Telephonic Me

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Google Voice and the Telephonic Me

I’ve been using Google Voice for a couple of weeks now, and—despite a glitch or two—find it to be extremely impressive. Google Voice, which launched last March and is available only in the U. S., allows you to choose a free phone number. That number, as Google puts it, “is tied to you instead of a specific device or location.” What that means is simple: you’ll control almost every aspect of your telephonic life. And almost everything you can do with Google Voice is free.

A few of Google Voice’s many features include:

A single number for all your phones
Phone routing
Choose which phones should ring based on who calls
Forwarding phones
Free calls and SMS in the contiguous US and Canada
Call screening
Call blocking
Send, receive, and store SMS online
Listen to voicemail online or from a phone
Voicemail transcripts (can be read online)
Receive voicemail notification via email or SMS
Personalized greeting that tailor greetings by caller
Conference calling
Record calls and store them online
A permanent record of phone numbers is kept for all calls made and received

Here are just a few highlights of Google Voice (hereinafter called GV):

Selecting a Phone Number

The fun begins right at the start, when you select a phone number. You can choose an area code, and you can also request that a specific word or acronym be built in if available. For example, the number I chose ends in SUZ, the first three letters of my name (translating to 789 on the dial pad).

Free Long Distance Phone Calls

GV allows you to make free long distance phone calls within the continental US/Canada. Calls are initiated online from your GV inbox, from certain mobile apps, or by dialing your own Google Voice number from one of your phones and selecting option 2 to place a call.

International calls can also be made through GV; they are billed according to a schedule posted on the Google Voice website. For examples: at this writing, calls from the US to France and Ireland are billed, per minute, at 2¢; to Martinique, 5¢; Paraguay, 9¢; the Philippines and Saudi Arabia, 11¢; and Tonga, 40¢.

Call Forwarding

Perhaps the greatest among many GV benefits is the ability to forward calls to one or all (or none) of your other phone numbers. You can change the call-forwarding lineup any time you choose by simply making the change online on your GV settings page.

A call dialed to your GV number can be forwarded simultaneously to as many as six phones—cell phones, landlines, or VOIP numbers. Or, if you desire to remove yourself from the grid, you can specify that no phones ring.

You get to choose which phones ring when specific people call. For your boss, assistant, significant other, or kids you might choose to have all phones ring to ensure that you get the call. For that pesky neighbor down the street you might choose to have no phones ring, sending the call straight to an answering device.

It’s also easy to establish precise rules for which phones you want to ring at different times of the day. For example, you could set your work cell phone to never ring at night.

Contact Organization

Contacts can be organized into groups such as business associates, friends, and family. You can set preferences by entire groups.

Call screening

When someone listed in your address book calls, a computerized voice announces that person’s name. Anyone calling who is not in your address book will be asked to state their name before the call is put through.

When receiving calls, you’ll have three options after you determine who is making the call: answer it, send it to voicemail, or listen to the voicemail as it’s being recorded (you can pick up the phone and speak to the caller at any time during voicemail record).

Voicemail

Voicemail is automatically translated into text. It can be listened to online and sent to you as an e-mail or a text message on your cell phone. I suspect Google will be doing more work on the voice-to-text aspect. Right now, depending on how clearly or quickly the speaker enunciates, the transcription may not make sense.

The first phone call I received was from a writer friend who was helping me test the transcription capability:

What she actually said: Oh, hi, Suzie, this is Meg, or Mike, or we’ll see what it says I am. Ummm, I am testing your service, and, ummm, let’s see. What else is going on? Nothing much else. I’m getting ready to write about endometriosis. That’s en-do-met-ri-o-sis. Okie-dokie, pokie. Bye!

What GV thought she said: Ohh, Hi Susie, this is Nick are micro, we’ll see what it says I am. I’m testing your service and let’s see what else is going on. Nothing much else. I’m getting ready to right, but in the week. Rios, that’s in Dolby Cherie Oaks this all. P Do People, P bye.

As you can imagine, this transcription engendered a good deal of hilarity. We ended up sending nonsense emails back and forth for a while (“Kabottle dish peru!” was my favorite from Meg).

A voicemail message can stay online, but you can also download, copy, and email it.

Recording calls

At any time during a phone call—but only when the person on the other end has placed that call—you can record the call simply by pressing 4. You can access the recording on the Web.

Word is that GV will eventually allow recording of calls initiated by you.

Conference Calls

GV makes conference calls easy, easy, easy. Instead of sending out a conference number and access code to conferees, just ask them to call your number at a preset time: they’ll be conferenced in as they call.

That’s just the start of what Google Voice has to offer. This feature-packed service comes along at a time when I’m determined to clear up the glut of phones and phone services that clutter my existence (and cost money). Once I get familiar with everything GV has to offer and test its limits, I intend to make some big changes phone-wise.

Sometime soon I’ll let you know how I’ve integrated Google Voice features into my work and the rest of my life. I suspect I’ll be telling you that using Google Voice has simplified “The Telephonic Me.”

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