Archive for Google voice
Activate Google Voice Transcription on Cell Phone
Posted by: | CommentsI just heard about a feature I wasn’t using with Google Voice. Now I can get voicemails made to my non-Google Voice number transcribed and texted and/or emailed to me! To most of us, this is the biggest benefit of switching to GV, but you don’t have to give up your mobile number to get this benefit.
If you have a GV (Google Voice) number and use that number exclusively, i.e. discarded your original cell phone number, then you have all the benefits of Google Voice. I’ve had a Google Voice number for a year or so, but haven’t moved over completely to Google Voice. I do give out my GV number to new contacts because of the greater flexibility for handling calls, and of course, the message transcription/texting/email service. Even though transcription isn’t perfect, it’s enough to figure out what the message is about. If the message is garbled, at least you’ll have the caller’s number.
So, if you haven’t activated this feature yet, here’s how:
- after logging into your GV account, go to the ‘Settings’ drop down and select ‘Voice’
- You’ll see the ‘Phones’ tab comes up – look at the ‘Forwards to’ section and you’ll want to click on ‘Activate Google voicemail on this phone’
- You’ll get a pop-up ‘Voicemail setup’. Here’s where you enter in the symbols/numbers exactly as given & press send
- If all goes well, you’ll get a confirmation message. Mine said ‘Registration of all conditional call forwarding returned success’
- That’s it – you’re activated
google voice
Then I tested it by calling my cell provider number, left a message and got a text with the transcribed message – cool.
Since that didn’t take very long, while you’re in your Google Voice settings, take a look at some other things you can tweak…
- record or re-record your greeting or your name
- check on where your voicemail notifications are going and update, if necessary
Google Voice-Keep Your Original Number
Posted by: | CommentsGoogle Voice made some attractive changes announced in their blog October 26th. Until now, those of us lucky enough to receive an invitation had to make a difficult choice to change our number over to our Google number—or not.
This week, Google said they recognize how difficult it is for some to give up their numbers, so they’ve been able to tweak the technology to allow people to keep their original number and keep these GV features:
- free voicemail transcription (delivered to your email address)
- ability to do an on-line search of transcribed voicemail
- customized greetings for different callers
- SMS and email notifications
- low-priced international calling
If you decide to make your GV number your only number, you also get these features:
- ability to use your Google Voice number to reach you on all your phones
- SMS via email
- call screening
- call recording
- conference calling (up to 6 people)
- call block
Here’s a chart from Google that gives a side by side of the above for easier comparison.
The big appeal of Google Voice for many of us is the ability to use one number that we can program to reach us from all of the phone numbers we use. We don’t get that if we keep our original number.
Having the ability to import my contacts, assign groups to them, record a specific greeting for business, personal and family groups is both efficient and professional. I can further direct GV how to handle a specific group or person’s calls at a certain time of day. For instance, I would program GV to send all my family calls to all of my numbers so I wouldn’t miss them. I would program my business group to ring only certain phones at designated times of the day.
Here’s a short video that quickly explains the benefits of Google Voicemail.
Having It Both Ways
I’ve got a Google Voice number—and I still have my mobile and home numbers because I didn’t want to be too hasty in eliminating numbers I’ve had for a long time.
Why not use both numbers. I’ve decided that’s what I’ll do for now. I can give my GV number out for certain purposes/circumstances and enjoy the ability to program instructions for specific groups or callers.
If I go out of town, I can choose to forward my mobile and home numbers to my GV number and have the ability to handle all my calls in a specific manner. Any voicemails will be transcribed and emailed to me for easy review and retrieval.
I’m not using my Google Voice number very much yet, but it’s nice knowing it’s there and on the few occasions I have, it’s such a timesaver to get voicemails emailed to me instantly. The transcription isn’t perfect, but enough so I can recognize who called.
One thing I haven’t gotten to work is the free SMS. It’s my understanding that if I use GV SMS, charges wouldn’t apply. However, after using it exclusively for several days, I checked my on-line T-mobile account and they were still being counted in there. I will check out the Google Voice Help Forums more to see if I can get an answer there.
Google Voice-One Number for Life
Posted by: | CommentsSeveral months back I was listening to Leo Laporte – all around tech guy. He was talking about how Google purchased Grand Central in order to revamp it into a new service called Google Voice. Right now, you can join Google Voice only by invitation.
I visited the website and signed up to get the very special invitation from Google. It arrived a couple of weeks ago, so I began the process of searching through a list for the perfect number that would resonate with me and the world (ha ha).
So now I’ve got my number and am wondering what the heck I’m going to do with it. What will it do for me or other small business owners?
The Google site has lots of great videos and FAQs to assist, but I turn to tech bloggers I respect to get their take and some practical applications. This time, I chose TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington because I heard he quit the iPhone because Apple/ATT won’t allow the Google Voice App to be downloaded and used on iPhones. If he put his iPhone down for Google Voice, there must be something to it.
Please read his great article. He addresses probably the biggest concern – I don’t want to lose my number! Google will be rolling out number portability later this year. That solves that problem. The next concern is that when I place a call, I want my ported number to show up, not the Google Voice number. They have addressed that as well (on the mobile side), with apps that have already been released for the Android and Blackberry.
So let’s say the porting of your mobile number to your Google Voice number has happened and you are lucky enough to own one of the supported mobile handsets that accept the Google Voice App – what next? Let’s look at features…
Google Voice Features
- You’ll have a single number that can/will ring to your home, work, mobile or any other number you own—depending on how you set it up.
- Ability to block any number you wish (think of the possibilities here)
- Set up personalized vmx greetings by group or individual
- Screen callers leaving you a vmx – pick it up if you wish
- Granular settings—you control (via your Google Voice account on the web), how calls from either a group you designate or a single person is handled. You are able to set controls so that your friends calls are automatically routed to all your numbers because you don’t want to miss their calls – right? On the flip side, you can also set your phone to have certain calls go directly to your voicemail at at certain times of the day(co-workers after hours calls??).
- Voicemail—you can set controls so any voicemails you receive on your mobile are transcribed and sent to you either via email or text message, then read it at your leisure. What a timesaver! The transcribed calls are all held in your Google account on-line and are searchable and tagable.
- Conference Calls—have up to 6 people on a conference call—and you can record the call too.
- Call Record –record calls and save them online.
Try to wrap your head around this – with your Google Voice number, you will never have to be held captive again by a phone company.Whatever phone you have in your hand can be used as your phone.
I’ve yet to dive in to my Google contacts to set all the controls and instructions, but Paul Stamatiou has and has some great screen shots and shows the multitude of possibilities at your fingertips.
For you Palm Pre users, looks like there is an unofficial app out there for you. Read Lifehacker’s article for more information.
Blackberry, Android and other mobile users can get the app you need as well.
There’s a lot of positive buzz about Google Voice and many are getting their numbers, but from what I’ve read, people are waiting for the number portability feature to start implementing.
For business owners, it is a great convenience and the service is free – at least for now. Our phones are our lifelines and helps us produce revenue. Do we want to trust it to Google—be it for privacy, security, reliability reasons? What do you think?
