Google Gives Voice to the Masses with Google Voice

I got my Google Voice invite Friday afternoon and have been fiddling around with it ever since.  Many folks might remember Google’s lackluster (at first) acquisition of GrandCentral.  I signed up for it a while back and gave the number to all of three people who promptly decided to keep dialing my real number.  In any event, Google Voice is GrandCentral reincarnated (and better).

What’s to like?

Tie it all together. True to its GrandCentral heritage, you can still have all your phone numbers integrated under one phone number.  I’ve got two phones, so this is really great.  Furthermore, taking the hint from those who have said Google needs to do a better job of tying their existing services together, you can elect to receive an email and/or text message when you have a voicemail.  Also, you can buy credits for international calls using Google Checkout.

Groups. I absolutely love this feature.  After having my mom tell me about one of her employee’s ghetto ringback tones (you sure you want your boss to hear “Walk It Out” when she’s calling you because you’re late to work?), I’m thoroughly convinced that the phone companies should have offered a way to segment groups of callers a long time ago.  I’ve recorded two different voicemail greetings thanks to Voice.  The first?  Very business-like.  The second? Heyyy, y’all!

Segmenting your contacts in Voice doesn’t just work at a group level, however.  You can go so far as to set a voicemail greeting specific to each individual in your contacts list. That is great.

Call screening. By default, someone dialing your number doesn’t get patched through to you immediately.  If they’re not listed in your contacts, they’ll have to state their name first.  If they are listed, Google will say the name for you.  Either way, your phone will ring displaying their phone number and you’ll be given four options for how to handle the call.  You can turn call screening off, however.  In the event that you don’t want to talk to anyone at all that calls on your Voice number, you can enable “Do Not Disturb” mode and voila! All calls go to voicemail.

Record phone calls. No, this isn’t to be liked in a Linda Tripp-Clinton scandal sort of way.  Instead, think of all the phone calls you’ve ever been on where it would have been nice to have had a recording of what you talked about–group projects, interviews, etc.  Now, with Voice, you have it.  To prevent scandal, a clear voice announces once “Call Recording ON” so that all parties know the call is being recorded.  I recorded myself singing on the house phone after making a call thru Voice to my iPhone.  The singing is quite awful, but the recording audio is crystal clear.

One point though–you can’t download the audio just yet.  I must mention, too, that transcripts are only available now for voicemails and not phone calls.

Text messaging. Not too many momths ago, I was lying in bed complaining about how I wish there was some other way to access my text messages if my iPhone was somehow incapacitated.  I meant this from the standpoint of both backup and replying to texts.  Voice includes this and does us one better.  You can reply to text messages from the thread that’s created in Google Voice.  Plus, you don’t have to worry about having to delete text messages because your phone only allows you to store but so many (e.g., only being able to store up to 100 text messages in your inbox, etc.).  It’d be very cool, too, if they could stretch it out and let you answer text messages through Google Chat.  But, yes yes, one thing at a time.

Extra Credit

You can switch phones during a call you’ve received without the caller knowing.  This one is sure to come in handy when you’re caught on a landline by a long-winded relative/co-worker as you’re on the way out.  Just transfer the call to another phone and keep it moving.  I tried this feature and it’s truly seamless.

What about international calling?  Google starts you out with$1.00 of international calling credits.  As mentioned earlier, you can purchase more through Google Checkout in $10 blocks.  Voice maintains a huge listing of per minute rates for calling different countries here.

Wait…Google Knows Too Much About Me!

I was just talking to a friend about this the other day who said Google could read your mind if they wanted to.  People are talking about this because it’s Google.  They knew somebody on your block probably had the flu; they know you like watching 24; and they know some of your shopping habits.  Of course, Google is going to somehow tie this into AdWords.  Just how remains to be seen.  If anything, privacy issues would also spring up from how users decide to use anything piped through their Voice phone number–especially when recorded phone calls can be downloaded or entire text messaging threads can be exported and displayed elsewhere.  That, however, is not a new issue.

Overall, I’ll be remembering and passing out my new number because Google Voice makes it worth it.