Summer & Tyler

Google is known mostly for their search engine, and GMail. I use them every day, love them, but none of them compare to the utility and sheer coolness of Google Voice.

Google Voice started out as a totally separate company, GrandCentral. I signed up for my GrandCentral account (thanks for the recommendation Trevor) back in 2007 when I was still living in Corona Del Mar, CA, so they gave me a number local to my 949 area code. I never really used the service after initially signing up, but I am so glad that I got my foot in the door at that crucial time.

GrandCentral got bought out by Google in late 2007, and they basically tinkered with it and re-released the interface under the name of Google Voice back in February. When I finally realized everything Google Voice could do for me after revisiting my account after years of neglect, I started making it central to my communicatins with friends, family and clients.

I have my own Google Voice number, a basic 10 digit number local to my area code. I give this number to everyone who wants to get a hold of me and I determine from within Google Voice how the call gets handled.

Google lets me choose which outside phone numbers my incoming calls get routed to. I currently have all calls routed to my cell phone and my office's direct line. That way, I have the option to pick up on whatever line is most convenient for me at the time, both ring when I get an incoming call.

I can schedule for it to ring me on my home phone number as well after 6 PM (or any other time I choose). Every incoming call is announced to you when you pick up the line (it will read the name to you if the contact already exists in your phone book) and give you the option to either

• take the call
• put them directly into voicemail
• listen in on the message with the option to pick up
• record the call

The call recording feature is awesome, the whole conversation gets stored in your account for access later. You can forward the recording to anyone, or just save for later reference. I've already used it a few times to ensure details of some transactions were kept meticulously.

For numbers that frequently call in (like my wife) I opt to just have it pick up as normal. The coolest thing though, is that I can customize my greetings for certain callers. My wife gets a different greeting from my clients, who get a different greeting from my friends.

I can elect to have numbers blocked, or automatically routed to my voicemail. I can record as many custom messages as I want for whatever caller or call group that comes in. Annoying phone calls from repeat offenders can give you some great opportunities for creative custom messaging.

I can send and recieve text messages from my cell or on the web. The incoming text messages will route to any SMS-enabled phone you've linked to your account and you can respond directly to them. The coolest thing is being able to text people from the your account on the web.

The web interface is very much like GMail. It lists messages by date, and has an easy search function. Google uses AJAX programming, the magic that allows you to see the list of people whose names start with a certain letter the instant you type it; so composing messages is just as easy as e-mailing from GMail.

I also get elective notifications via e-mail, and a text message whenever a new message is recieved in the account. Another very convenient feature is the message transcription. The voice recognition seems to be about 75% accurate, but I've only gotten a handful of transcriptions that made it impossible for me to tell what the gist of the message was.

From the web, I can place a phone call by going to a contact name, or just typing a phone number and then Google Voice will ring any one of my linked numbers. When I pick up the number it rings me on, I'll hear the ringtone like I had placed the call myself from that phone. This helps me to make sure my caller ID shows up on the other party's phone as my Google Voice number, and it's nice doing the 1-click dial thing. It would be awesome to simply dial out like you can with SkypeOut, but currently it's not a feature, and for now I'm actually pretty stoked on the landline capability I'm getting out of MajicJack.

If I ever lose my cell phone, or I'm in a place with no service, I can have the calls routed to any number in the US for free. The caller ID will pop up on any caller ID enabled phone.

So why havent' you heard about it yet?

Because it's not available to the outside yet. I got lucky when I was grandfathered in from Grand Central, and I have desperately wanted to get my assistant, my wife, and my parents their own Google Voice number.

The Good News:

Google has recently grabbed 1 Million Phone numbers which means that they'll be adding accounts in the near future. Obviously there are tons of pros to using the service, but just to be socially responsible, here are the cons one might consider.

Either way, I can't wait to get myself an additional Google Voice number. Believe me, as soon as they're available, you'll want one too.