Google Voice – Review and Insights

Google Voice Overview

Google Voice is a new Google service that is currently available by invite only. It essentially gives you the opportunity to have a virtual phone number that you publicize for people and clients to call and add your various phone devices (home, work, mobile, gadget) to the account. When a call is made to the number, it rings your numbers that you designated. That is just the surface to the settings and customizations and features that are available and we have had the opportunity to put it to the test.

Many of the features are clearly shown at the Google Voice About page; however, we intent to provide insight as an end user.

Adding Your Phones

Through the settings panel it is easy to add your different phone devices. You enter the phone number and select what type the phone number is (Work, Home, Mobile, Gadget). Once you click to save it, Google will need to verify and displays a two digit number on the screen and prompts you to initialize the call. Once initiated, Google Voice will call your number and ask you to verify by entering the two digit number shown. Your phone is now added and you will be able to create your initial voice mail message at this point.

There are advanced options to set when the phone should not ring, such as during the week, during the weekend or a custom schedule.

Your First Call

People that call your Google Voice Number that are not listed in your contacts will be greeted by a voice asking them to say their name while they attempt to reach you. At this time all of your phones will ring by default depending on your settings. When you answer the call it will say you have an incoming call from XXX, Press 1 to answer, 2 to send to voice mail. If you send them to your voice mail you will have the option to privately listen in as they leave the message or just hang up.

Messages

Once a message is left, Google Voice will attempt to transcribe the message to text and can send you an email containing the text with the audio attachemnt but will always show up in your main control panel. If the transcription is unsure of an exact word it will turn the color to a lighter gray to show its uncertainty and it appears to be pretty accurate. SMS messages can also be received and shown and stored if you have a mobile number added. Basically you can think of Gmail for phones. You can search, archive, star, view missed, incomming, outgoing etc.

Contacts, Voice Mail Greetings, and Control

One of the powerful features is your ability to control who receives what message greeting and what contacts or groups get directed to a certain phone and time scheduling.

Contacts work just like in Gmail but also contains “Voice Options” which allows you to designate how they are greeted and if there is a specific phone they should be routed to.

You can record and add multiple voice mail greetings and store them with a title. So for small business you could have prospect contacts receive a certain greeting, current clients receive another, friends and family as another. Or pesky callers, creditors, and service spammers automatically sent to voicemail and can kindly be greeted with a message that you have expatriated to Zimbabwe.

Placing Calls

You can call your number from a designated mobile phone on the account and enter your private pin number to access options to listen to voice messages, place a call, or use google 411. Currently when placing a call through your google number you can only enter the number you wish to call, there is no access to your contacts or voice commands to call certain people.

If you are in your control panel and you select to call back, it will prompt you to select which phone to call. At that time Google will call your phone and when you answer you hear it ringing the number you intend to reach.

Closing

Over all Google Voice is a fantastic application with a lot more functionality than mentioned. While there are some additional features that would be very helpful we are eager to see how it grows.

Since it is by invite from Google only, you can add yourself to the waiting list by signing up here.