Google Voice

I received my long awaited invite for Google Voice today. I've been reading about how Google is rolling it out and sending out waves of invites. I signed up over a year ago....I was beginning to think they had forgotten me. :)

I've been setting it up all evening and wanted to offer a high level overview of the points that I really like.

1) One number, many phone lines. Once you set up your number, that's the one you start giving out. You can hook that number up to as many other lines as you want. For me I've hooked my Google Voice number to first my cell phone, then my work phone. When someone calls your new number, GV (Google Voice) will forward to first my cell, then my work number.

2) The power of groups. You can create groups in GV and assign contacts to them. For example, I've created a Family group and assigned my immediate family to that group. If I want, I can record a custom greeting that will play when anyone from those numbers calls my GV number.

I can see lots of room for improvements here as this gets better. I'd love to see customizable rules for groups, so I could say, for example, I don't want any work calls from 10PM to 8AM, put those directly into voicemail. That option isn't available yet, but I hope it's soon. You can choose a Do Not Disturb option which routes all calls through to VM...and it looks like you can do this through the web interface or dialing in from your phone.

3) Voicemail transcription. When your callers leave a VM, GV will transcribe it into text and email it to you, along with the audio file of the VM. You can have an email sent and/or an SMS text message sent to your phone. For me the SMS notifications are buggy...I get several notifications on my iPhone. I just turned that part off and will just stick with the emails.

You VM's are presented in an interface that looks very much like Gmail. You can archive them and store them, and best of all, search them. Search for text of the VM and BAM! you can have access to that VM you got last week from your mother reminding you about Aunt Millie's birthday next week! Way Cool!

4) Block Unwanted Calls. I still get those stupid sales calls trying to sell me Rx drugs, penis enlargement creme, and hormone replacement therapy, none of which I am interested in. Despite me telling them over and over to take me off their list, and being on the National Do Not Call Registry, I still get these annoying calls. The NEXT time I get one of these, I'm letting it go to VM, then listing the call as SPAM in GV. This will block calls from this number from here on out. I like this feature a lot!

5) Record your calls. Is your significant other calling you to give you a shopping list of things to pick up on the way home? Just press 4 while on the call and GV will record the call and send it to your GV inbox. Since their are legal implications here GV will announce to your caller that you've started and ended the recording.

There are plenty of other cool features. Once you get signed up click on the Help link in the upper right side of the home page and it explains all of the cool new features!

I hope you sign up and enjoy this way cool new service! Drop me your tips/tricks at myers.terry@gmail.com or on Twitter @terrymyers.