Google Voice – It Will Change How You Use Your Phone

Google Voice will shake up how you use phones. You get a free virtual phone number and calls to that number ring on up to 6 phones at the same time. Free long distance calls in the continental U.S. and lot of other free goodies.

To get an idea of what it’s all about, look at this overview on YouTube. Or read this New York Times article.

It is only available by invitation. Sign up to get on the list. I got an invitation about a week after signing up.

Don’t be fooled, however. Just because you don’t get a bill from Google doesn’t mean it’s ‘free’. You are undoubtedly giving up some degree of privacy and it would be foolish not to expect them to use it in the future as a platform for targeting advertisements.

Free Long-Distance Calls

You can call any number, landline or cell, in the continental U.S. free. Of course, if you use a cell phone long-distance charges may not be important to you. For the rest of us, they can be.

Calls to Hawaii are 2¢ a minute and calling Alaska will cost you 4¢. International rates are comparable with or less than you’d pay elsewhere. A quick comparison with Skype shows that Google costs less to almost every country. Google charges from 1¢ (to Canada) to as much as 60¢ (Guantanamo Bay and North Korea). A third of international calls are 10¢ a minute or less. Two-thirds are 20¢ or less.

Your calls can show your Google number in the CallerID.

Of course, you can also make local calls.

You can make a call from the Google Voice website (on your computer or from a cell phone) or by calling your Google number. When you call your Google number, go into voicemail (press *) and enter your PIN. Then press 2. After that all you have to do is enter the area code and number of the person you want to call.

Choosing Your Virtual Phone Number

The key to Google Voice is a free virtual phone number. When you set up your account, you get to choose the number based either on area code or by searching for a number that includes text you choose.

For example, I looked for a number that would spell out ‘Bristow’ but there were none available. There were, however, numbers available with ‘Walter’, ‘WaltBYU’ and ‘Cougar’ — though not in any area codes I was interested in.

You can pick a number in your local calling area or in any U.S. area code Google has numbers – and it looks to be extensive. You can’t choose numbers outside the U.S. Nor can you use a number that needs an extension. Toll-free numbers are not available.

Let’s say you live in Florida but almost all of your family lives in Modesto, California. If you pick a number in Modesto, your family will be able to call you using a local number instead of paying for long distance. If you live in a small town in the middle of nowhere but want to have a ‘big-town’ appearance, choose a number in a large metro area.

When you’re searching for a number in a specific area code, just enter the area code and all or part of the 3 digit exchange prefix.

Currently you can have only one Google number – which is reasonable given it’s free. However, note that when you sign up to get an invite from Google, all they ask is your email address. You may be able to swing a second Google number by setting up a second GMail account and then using that address to ask for a second invite.

Sharing a Google Number

If you share a home or work number, each of you can use that number with Google Voice. For example, if your Google number is 555-0001 and your spouse’s number is 555-0002, each of you can set up your Google Voice account to ring through to your home number. However, that doesn’t work with cell phones. Only one Google Voice account can be set up to ring a specific cell number.

Call Forwarding

This refers to forwarding your Google number to other phones. It does not let you forward calls to your home number, for example, to another number. However, if your phone number can forward calls to your Google number, interesting opportunities open up. For example, a call to your home can then be rerouted to work or a cell phone through Google. You can also set up a temporary number that Google will forward calls to if, for example, you’re headed out to visit family for the weekend. If you’d like, you can turn on a ‘Do Not Disturb’ feature. That sends all calls to voice mail automatically.

Limiting When a Phone Rings

You can limit when a particular phone will ring. Set your office phone to ring only on weekdays and never on weekends. Set your home phone to ring only between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. You can change the schedule quickly and easily online. The times are based on the time zone you’ve selected. If you travel, you may need to adjust this to avoid getting calls on your cell phone in the middle of the night.

It would be nice if you could limit ringing based on groups of people. Family members would ring through to your home number in the middle of the night but others would not. You can’t do that now.

Call Blocking

If you block a number, when they call again they get a message saying, “We’re sorry, this number is no longer in service.”

Call Routing

You decide which phones ring for a particular person or group of people. (You can identify people in your contacts list as part of a group or multiple groups.) For example, you can set Google Voice up so when your spouse calls from her cell phone, every phone you have access to rings. When co-workers call, only your office phone rings. Your boss gets your office and cell phone. That pesky ‘friend’ from college gets none – her calls go directly to voice mail. You can also decide that an individual always gets sent to voice mail, is treated as spam or gets the call blocking message.

Call Screening

Google Voice can screen any caller who is not in your Google contact list. The first time they call, it asks for, and records, their name. You can screen all unknown callers or only those who have set up their phone so it doesn’t show their CallerID.

Listen In

Like a home answering machine, Google Voice lets you listen in as people leave a voice mail. When you get a call (if you’ve set up call screening), you hear the name of the person and can then either take the call, send it to voice mail or listen in as the caller leaves a voice mail.

Conference Calling

When you receive a call on your Google number and then receive another call, you can add the new caller to the existing call. You can add up to 4 callers. Unlike other conference calling systems that give you a number for everyone to call, with Google Voice you just give people your virtual number. As people call in, you can add them to the call.

Call Recording

You can record calls you’ve received through your Google number. You cannot record outbound calls for some reason. The recordings are in your Google Voice account on the internet.

Transcripts of Voice Mails

When someone leaves a voice mail, Google Voice automatically transcribes the message. You can see it when you look at your Google Voice account on the internet. You can send a copy to your phone or to email. The transcription is far from perfect. But it’s good enough to get a sense of what’s going on and probably good enough to go a basic text search.

Vary Greetings by Caller

You can have different voice mail greetings for each of your groups or even for every individual in your contact list. Your spouse gets one message. Your brother gets another. Your co-workers get yet another.

Switch Phones

Let’s say on your way to work you get a call to your Google Voice number and you pick it up on your cell phone. You start the conversation and then make it to work. Press the star button on your cell phone and your other phones will then ring. Pick up your work phone and continue your conversation as if nothing had changed.

Forward or Download Voice Mails

You can email a voicemail or download it to your computer.

Get an Email or Text Message When Voice Mail is Left

If you’d like, Google Voice will send you an email or text message that you’ve received a new voice mail. The email gives you the number and (if the person is in your contact list) name of the caller. It also includes a transcript of the message. Even if the caller left no message, you’ll get the notice of the caller’s name and number.

Call Widget

You can allow others to call you from your website or blog by adding a call widget to it. Visitors to the website can click the widget, enter their phone number, and Google Voice will call them and connect the call to your Google number.

Choosing the Caller’s Number to Show on CallerID

When someone calls your Google number, you can choose to have the person’s phone number or your Google number show on the CallerID. If you use your Google number, you’ll know they dialed your Google number to reach you.

How Does Google Identify Callers?

Google uses the phone number in your contacts list to identify who is calling (and to create your list of calls and to send emails).

To try to figure out how they decide which contact to use if there are multiple people with the same phone number, I called my Google number from my home phone. In my contact list you’ll find three people with my home phone number – me, my wife and my son. Initially Google Voice reported that I was the caller. I then changed my phone number in my Google contact list by a single digit so Google wouldn’t match the callerID with my home number. When I looked at the Google Voice website to look at the history of my calls, all the calls made from my home number were reported under my son’s name. When I called my Google Voice then reported it was my son was calling. I changed my contact record back so it showed the right number. Google Voice continued to show that my son was the caller.

You can edit a contact so when he or she calls the call goes to only certain of your phones. You can also create a special greeting that only that person hears. (Well, presumably anyone who calls from a phone number associated with that person will hear the greeting.)

Final Thoughts

Google Voice will open interesting opportunities. Is there any reason to pay a local phone company to make long distance phone calls any more? Or to pay to set up a small conference call? Or for voice mail? Looks like Google could have an impact on businesses outside the traditional internet and computer realms. What do you think? What kind of impact will Google’s venture into telephony have?

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