Not to be confused with Skype, the VoIP phone service (see Part 2: Skype), Google Voice has taken an innovative approach to voice communications by providing you with the ability to aggregate all your disparate phone numbers into one, easy to manage place. Just as an email alias allows you to forward email from one email address to another without the sender’s knowledge, Google Voice, with a Google phone number, allows you to manage all aspects of voice communications. The feature-rich application lets you:
Manage all your phones: a single number that rings them all, or those you select
Free SMS: send, receive & store text messages online
Block calls: send unwanted callers straight to voicemail
Record calls: record phone calls and store them online
Conference calls: join several people into a single call
Screen callers: hear who is calling before you pick up
If you don’t want a Google number but prefer to use your established number you won’t get the features mentioned above but you can still enjoy these features:
Google voicemail: voicemail that works just like email
Voicemail transcription: read what your voicemail says
Custom greetings: vary voicemail greetings by caller
International calling: low cost calls to the world
Notifications: read voicemail messages via email or SMS
Share voicemails: forward, embed, or download voicemails
There are many more features available with this robust and easy-to-manage suite of voice communication tools from Google.
It’s pretty cool.
Visit YouTube to watch short videos that demonstrate Google Voice features. Visit Google for a brief introduction to Google Voice. Before you can download Google Voice for mobile you have to have a Google Voice account already so you first must make a Google Voice invitation request. Once you have been assigned your Google number you can sign into Google Voice using your Google Account (or gmail address and login, which, as you know, links you to all the Google apps and features you signed up for).
Have your people call my people :)
