What Is Google Voice?
"I'm a little confused by Google Voice. It seems like a way to get free phone service, but that sounds too good to be true. Can you explain what Google Voice is, and is not?
Free Phone Service With Google Voice
Google Voice is a free enhanced telephone management service that works with your existing phone number and carrier, or all on its own. It includes features you want but will never get from a telephone carrier service because carriers can't make money off them.
Take caller-blocking, for example. Carriers make money by the talk-minute, so they don't want you to block any callers. Google Voice is free, so it lets you block callers by caller-ID. Think of all the people from whom you never want to hear again. With Google Voice, you won't.
Phone number portability is another highly desirable feature that phone carriers don't want to offer. Many charge $5, $10, even $15 to transfer your phone number to one of their competitors. If you get a Google Voice phone number, it's yours for life free of charge.
Forward it to any phone carrier's number you like and when people call your Google Voice number, they reach you. Change carriers and leave the old carrier's number behind. Just forward your Google Voice number to the new carrier's number. No charge.
Free Voicemail, Message Transcriptions and More…
Carriers charge you to listen to voicemail, even charging for the time you spend navigating their deliberately complicated voicemail command menus. Google voicemail can be set to automatically forward a WAV file of a voice message to your email inbox, where you can listen to it in one mouse click. It can even transcribe voicemail into a semblance of English, although this feature is as imperfect as any text-to-speech application.
SMS text messaging on a phone is tricky with those tiny buttons or imprecise touchscreens. With Google Voice you can send text messages to any SMS-enabled phone number from a full-sized keyboard. Text message conversations are threaded just like Google Mail so you can keep track of the back and forth exchange. You can search text messages just like you search email.
You get one recorded greeting with most phone carriers… "Hi, this is X, please leave your message…" With Google Voice you can store multiple greetings customized for individual callers or groups of callers. Have one greeting for business contacts; another for friends; one for each of your loved ones; etc.
A Free Phone Number?
You don't even need a phone service carrier to use Google Voice. You can't make outbound calls but you can receive voicemail, and both send and receive text messages via your Google Voice phone number. Add a free or low-cost Internet phone service such as Skype for outbound calls and you have a complete telephony package for nothing or very close to it!
A Google Voice number also does conference calls; lets you hear who is calling before you answer (call screening); lets you download voicemails and forward them via email as embedded or attached files; record calls and store them online. It treats voice data just like any other data, allowing virtually unlimited flexibility in how you store, process, and manage it.
With a Google Voice account, you gain features that phone carriers won't offer or will charge hefty fees to provide. You have one phone number permanently, no matter what number you are actually "at". Simply put, Google Voice simplifies mobile communications, for free.
If you use Google Voice, post a comment and tell me about your experience with it. Or feel free to ask a question using the comment box below...
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Posted by Bob Rankin on December 7, 2009 05:37 PM
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Article information: AskBobRankin -- What Is Google Voice? (Posted: December 7, 2009 05:37 PM)
Source: http://askbobrankin.com/what_is_google_voice.html
Copyright © 2005 - Bob Rankin - All Rights Reserved
Most recent comments on "What Is Google Voice?"
(See all 23 comments for this article.)Posted by:
newburyuk
11 Dec 2009
Absolutley love it. I use it for all our long distance now. Free for all US calls and only $.02 minute to UK land lines where all the family lives. We gave the number to our friends and they now only have to dial one number and all three of our phones ring simultaneously.
Posted by:
Russell W. Coover
12 Dec 2009
I do not have the caller-ID feature on my home phone. Will G. Voice still allow call blocking on my home phone?
EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes! But you have to get a Google Voice phone number, which will ring your home phone. The call blocking would only work when people call the GV number.
Posted by:
Bob
12 Dec 2009
Is there any way to use Google Voice without a computer on?
EDITOR'S NOTE: You can use many of the features with your computer turned off. Look here for more info: http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html
Posted by:
lovethefreeld
12 Dec 2009
my wife and i have been using it (seperate google voice accounts, for both of our land-lines) for several months.
we love the free, domestic long distance calls.
haven't tried out too many of the "bells and whistles", yet - but will probably get around to some of them eventually.
i'm told that it can even be handy for cell phone users (as long as they have a computer with them), since they make their google voice number one of their "circle" of of friends or family. doing so allows them to keep from eating up minutes on their monthly cell phone plans.
it's also very easy to use. highly recommended!
Posted by:
John
14 Dec 2009
Can anyone tell me if Google voice works in Australia?
Posted by:
Willie B.
14 Dec 2009
The best feature is unlimited calls on your cell phone as long as you have a plan that gives you a list of numbers that you call the most for no charge(friends and family). You list your Google voice number as one of the numbers you can call free and all the calls you make with your Google voice number are not counted against the minutes you pay for on your plan. You can talk all day free as long as you use the Google voice number to make the call.
Pretty sweet. Modify the numbers in your contact list to be the Google voice number, a pause, your password, a pause, the number 2, a pause, and the number to call.
Thousands of minutes a month for free. Thanks Google.
Posted by:
Stan
17 Dec 2009
I love GV and got a number very shortly after it became available.
My only problem is that when I receive a call, that is when it sends the call to my home phone the incoming message gets clipped - it starts playing when the phone is answered and by the time I have it to my ear its telling me what to push. I haven't found a way to 'pause' the message for maybe 2 seconds, and don't know why this isn't a problem for others.
Posted by:
Skipper
19 Dec 2009
I have looked into this great service and I see it says "by invite only" to get GV. Is this normal?. Is this what you must do to get GV?. Great info here however. Thanks!
Posted by:
Skipper
19 Dec 2009
Hmmm, After I click through the "Google invite", it says it's only available in the USA...Is this true?.
Posted by:
Anna
22 Dec 2009
Google Voice is indeed pretty awesome. I have moved a lot in the last few years, and the biggest complaint I get from friends is that they are constantly having to change my phone number in their phones and phone books. And of course, no matter how diligent I am about notifying everyone of a phone number or email change, many never wind up getting around to noting it, and then we lose touch. I went with Google Voice for the same reason I went with Gmail: no matter how many times I move, my contact info will always remain the same. So I don't need to rely on others to insure that I remain connected to them!
There are SOME bugs still involved with GV, but overall, it's great. My bf is in Germany at the moment, and I've found that, although calls are available cheaply to Germany, SMS at the moment is not. But after having read the forums on GV, it looks like that is gradually changing. For those chagrined over the fact that GV is only available to the US, I'd say just be patient. No doubt, it'll be available to the global community soon!
And finally, with regard to invites: You don't need to know someone who already has GV in order to get one of those coveted invites. I myself read about GV and simply requested on the GV site to be on their invite list. It didn't take long before I got mine...maybe a month-ish?? Just go to the URL that Bob previously posted: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googlevoiceinvite/