Saturday morning I slept in (as much as I can anymore). When I got up and looked at my email there was an invite to join Google Voice!
I had been waiting for many weeks as I was not a Grand Central customer but heard great things about the service! Google purchased Grand Central over a year ago and went to work on upgrading and improving their voice services.
Use my Gmail account or my Google Apps Email Account?
The first thing you do is click the link in the email invitation from Google and you are taken to the Google Voice login. Here you are prompted to login with your existing Gmail account. First I wasn’t sure if I should use my free Gmail account or my Google Apps account? I decided to go ahead using Gmail and was happy when I found out Google Voice is not part of Google Apps yet. (Google Apps allows organizations to host their email and domains with Google and also get shared calendars, documents and more. So you have all the Gmail features but with a custom domain name). Had I used the Google Apps account I wouldn’t be able to see the Google Apps contact list which is my list of friends and family and phone numbers in sync with my iTouch and Blackberry!
Next I walked through the setup of my voice account and was sent the authorization code by email and logged in. The first time I logged into Google Voice I had to choose my phone number. This is the main reason you want a Google voice number! You want a phone number you can give to friends, family and clients so you don’t have to give our your mobile phones, office phones or home phones. Give them one Google Voice number and route the callers by who they are! Living in a small Midwest town I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to get a local area code prefix but was happy to find it was available. I suspect Google has phone numbers available in all parts of the US?
I searched for numerous phone number combos to mean something but found the first 4 digits (prefix and first number) were locked so I found the best, most memorable number and moved ahead.
Unlimited Custom Greetings for all your groups or contacts!
Next I recorded my first greeting. It was easy intuitive and walked me through each step. You can create unlimited greetings for work clients group, friends group, family group etc. You can have fun and create a greeting and assign it to an individual and say some crazy things!
Configure your Phone Devices
Next I was prompted to configure my mobile phone number. I entered my mobile phone number and then given a verification code. Google Voice called my number and I entered the code to verify I own the number and I was setup. You can then add a home phone, office phone or as many phones as you like.
Time for Testing
At this point the basic service was setup and I called my Google Voice number and it rang into my cell phone. The caller ID was passed through so I had no idea I was getting a call via Google Voice. Next I left a voice message and hung up. About a minute later my mobile phone had a text message with a transcribed copy of my voice mail! Not a notice to dial in and listen to the message but the actual voicemail spelled out!
No longer do you need multiple voice mail inboxes! Have everyone call your Google voice number and if you don’t answer it will take a message and store it online to listen to later and transcribe and send you an email! Amazing! Remember you can create unlimited greetings and assign them to different contacts or groups of contacts in my address book! I could create a custom greeting for my wife, kids or people from my office or ???
Website Call Me Widgets!
Next I found the “web widgets area” and created a “Call Me” widget. A widget is a few lines of code to create a web page gadget for your sidebar. I placed the first one on our web development site http://CyberInnovation.com and gave it a test. Now someone visiting your site can click the widget, enter their phone number, check a box to hide their call back number if they prefer and click connect. Google now calls you and the web site visitor and we are connected.
If I don’t answer they get my voice mail transcribed to text and sent to my phone. How beautiful!
The Big Picture summary!
Think about people/organizations who have multiple websites and multiple businesses. They can now can use Google Voice to create custom greetings on each website and aggregate them to one phone number!
Non-profit organizations whose phone numbers change as board members change will now be able to get a single phone number for the organization.
As people cancel their land lines and email their friends/family about their new mobile phone numbers, they can now send a single number out for a replacement and route by contacts!
We’ve known for years the world of technology and IP telephony would overtake the days of hard wire phones and land lines, but now we can see it happening right in front of us!
Any questions call us 319-775-0045 and give Google Voice a try!
No related posts.
I will immediately grab your rss feed as I can not find your email subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you have any? Kindly let me know so that I could subscribe. Thanks.
Thanks for this great post. This is very resourceful for someone looking for a transcription article. I will be checking your site again soon.