6 replies to this topic

[Chugworth]

Well it looks like Google may be getting ready to open Google Voice up to the public:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=1456
http://www.google.com/voice/

I already have a Google Voice account. In fact, I've had the GrandCentral account for over a year.

The service seems really cool, but I still haven't found a good use for it. The idea is that you have one number that can ring multiple phones. You could put your contacts in different groups and select which phones the group will ring. You could also give each group a different greeting for voicemail.

My issue with the service deals with outgoing calls. Say for example you wanted everyone to use your Google Voice number. Well when you call out, your phone's original number will appear on their caller ID. Yes, you could either call your Google Voice number and enter the number you want to dial, or you could initiate the call through the Google Voice web page (your phone will ring, and when you answer then the other person's phone will ring), but that just makes it too much trouble to place a call. The same goes for SMS. The service would be awesome if it not for this problem.

So right now I'm just sort of using it as a voice mail box. I have "Do Not Disturb" enabled, so when someone calls my Google Voice number they can only leave a voice mail. I thought about forwarding my personal cell phone's voice mail to Google Voice, but my Samsung Omnia comes with Verizon's Visual Voice Mail application, and that's a bit more elegant to use from the phone. So yeah, I really don't use Google Voice much at all. Hopefully the service will add new features and abilities in the future that would make it more useful for me.

Does anyone else here have a Google Voice account, or waiting to get one?

[Phonics Monkey]

No...and after that discription I'm afraid to get one...

[quantumAlpha]

i want to get one, just to see what it can do for me...

a feature i think would be more useful is to have multiple numbers ring a single phone. travelling professionals can then use their cellphone to receive office calls and such...

i think all it's downfalls are remnants of the way the old POTS used to work. if/when this and voip become more popular, then it might be able to break loose of some of the restrictions (such as who's number shows up on caller id). Asterisk has already been able to do this, but sadly, not many people use it.

[Taco Bell]

I'm really looking forward to trying it out Chug, and based on Leo Laporte'ss podcasts, the outgoing call aspect is going to be addressed in the near future. Thanks for sharing your impressions thus far though. That's good to know.

[zapjb]

Have it, use it, like it. It's great for classified ads.

[arnoldclab]

With Google voice for voice calls and Ping! or text messages, I wonder how long it will be before mobile phone carriers start offering data-only plans?And yeah,I agree with Guest that developers should get the rewards for making a good app in fact this is a good reason to support the Cydia store instead of the Apple store because Apple take a massive chunk of the money people pay for the apps and add it to their ridiculous profit margins.

[Chugworth]

With Google voice for voice calls and Ping! or text messages, I wonder how long it will be before mobile phone carriers start offering data-only plans?

Well the Google Voice app isn't VoIP yet. The way it works is when you dial a number, the app causes the phone to first dial the Google Voice number. So the phone dials Google, which forwards you to the destination you want. That may change with Google's recent acquisition of Gizmo5. But I'm not sure if the current 3G networks are reliable enough for VoIP calls. That might not start becoming popular until 4G.

I totally agree that it would be great if the phone and cable companies simply became bandwidth providers. But they certainly don't want that, and are fighting hard to avoid that.