Tech Paul on 12 Jun 2009 04:42 pm
Google Voice
I’ve been using a single cell phone for voice communications for over seven years now. There’s one number to get me talking to you so the coordination of multiple phone numbers provided by Google Voice wasn’t that desirable. But I am a technology junkie so about a year ago I signed up with GrandCentral (which got bought by the Goog) anyway and promptly forgot about it.
Recently I’ve been using my Google Voice number as a “dump” account. Kind of like an alternate email address. I use it for signing up for white papers and mailing lists and handing it out to vendors. Two days ago I finally got a hit.
My cell phone rang early in the day with an out of state number I didn’t recognize. I answered it (I always answer my cell unless very busy) and was greeted with a voice telling me I have a call from “Blahblah Vendor” and I could press “1″ to take the call, “2″ to send it to voicemail, or “3″ to send to voicemail and listen in. So I pressed “2″ and hung up.
He didn’t leave a message (which would have been another cool test of the voice to text features) so I labelled his number as “Blahblah Vendor” put the contact in the Vendor category (i.e. straight to voicemail) and went on with my life. If it’s a vendor that I use I’ll put it in the Partner category that rings my work phone during business hours.
Yesterday I got a note on my door at home saying they couldn’t deliver a fruit basket. I pretty much guessed it was spam, but hey I like fruit, so I called out from my Google Voice number. It linked my cell to the number that was left but on their end the caller ID shows my GV number so the spammers (yeah no fruit for me) are more than welcome to call me back, although they’re in the Vendor category already.
The last thing is the ability to allow calls without giving out my number. Here’s a widget that will ask you for your number and will connect you to my cell without knowing my cell number or even my Google number. Give it a try if you feel like messing around.
All in all I’m pleased with the services. Unfortunately Google Voice isn’t accepting any new users for now, but when it does, I can recommend it for pretty much anyone. As long as you don’t care that Google knows every call that you make.
on 12 Jun 2009 at 7:17 pm 1.Dad H said …
If I had your cell #, I’d have given you a call after reading your blog on your google number.
on 12 Jun 2009 at 7:42 pm 2.Mac said …
I’ve been pretty happy with the GrandCentral/Google Voice service. Like you, I use it mostly for a dump number, just giving it out to anyone who I didn’t really care about.
The voice to text feature is really cool, when it works. Its really dependent on how clearly the person speaks, sometimes its perfect and other times its useless, but it came in handy once when I got a call from an unknown number, I was busy with something and didn’t want to take a phone call at the time, so let it go to voicemail and then a minute later got the transcription as an SMS and found that it was something I needed to respond to after all. Very handy.
on 13 Jun 2009 at 9:31 pm 3.Melissa said …
I’ve been using it (as Grand Central) for a few years. It works fabulously for screening, as you have already figured out. The benefit for me is that I have it forward to both my cell and my laptop via Skype. Since I work at home, I’d rather just take the call with my laptop and I don’t have to remember where I put my phone.
I also have the fact that my cell barely works in South Dakota. I pretty much have to be sitting within a couple of blocks of the cell tower. Because of this, I have a cell for Verizon–the only provider with reliable coverage. All I have to do is switch which cell the call forwards to, so people do not need to remember which number to use.
As for the transcribed voicemail: If anything, the voicemail madlib that you receive is humorous.
on 13 Jun 2009 at 11:49 pm 4.Paul said …
I’m interested in the text-to-voice but haven’t had enough calls to really try it out.
Does an inbound Skype number cost $?
on 15 Jun 2009 at 1:50 pm 5.Melissa said …
Yes, the Skype number costs $$. Okay, no, maybe just $.