Google Phone

[Ben]

I just saw this story on the Fox News website and thought that Google Voice sounded particularly interesting. I carry multiple phones, plus the voicemail to text message converter could come in handy, and it's all free. Invite only for now, but I'd be inclined to try it out.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/03/09/undiscovered-google-services-need-try/?test=latestnews

[Nick1911]

I've used it for a few months. I like it so far.  I love that it reads voicemail and sends it as a text message.

[GigaBuist]

I'm another fan of it.  Youmail is another good voicemail handling service that's much more intuitive than your standard Verizon stuff and comes with web access, email and text alerts, and the ability to customize voicemail greetings to the caller.  It beats Google voice on that last point but they charge about $20 a year for the transcription stuff so I switched to Google Voice.

Here's how my phones all work together:

Corporate office phone (that nobody calls, it's a Grasshopper system) will forward to Vonage phone which is my standard office line that clients call.  Vonage phone is set to simul-ring my cell phone.  Cell phone is set to use Google Voice and the time to voicemail on the cell is shorter than any other service so no matter how you call me Google Voice picks up the message.

Oh, and the actual Google Voice number rings my office Vonage phone and my cell phone.  I hand that number out to utility companies and such.  Basically if I have no desire to talk to you that's the number you get.

[mtnbkr]

Been using it for a few months as well.  I'm not a heavy user of it, mainly using it to give out my number to people I don't really want to give my number to.

Chris

[Nitrogen]

I just saw this story on the Fox News website and thought that Google Voice sounded particularly interesting. I carry multiple phones, plus the voicemail to text message converter could come in handy, and it's all free. Invite only for now, but I'd be inclined to try it out.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/03/09/undiscovered-google-services-need-try/?test=latestnews

Ben, you want an invite to google voice?  PM me wth your email and i'll hook you up.
I've got three invites, so Ben plus two people can get it. They're all gone now.

[Ben]

PM sent - thanks Nitrogen!

[Sergeant Bob]

Dredged this thread up to update, Google Voice is now wide open for sign ups!

$.08 per minute to Panama!

[Ben]

It's even more the bomb now that I'm using the Google Voice app for Android as well.

So does anyone know if it's possible (or Kosher) to get two Google Voice numbers? I could see where it could burden their system, but now that I've given my landline up, I would love to have my current Google Voice number to be sure select people I care about can contact me wherever, and have a second one as a telemarketer honeypot.

[lee n. field]

Google Voice .... handy, and it's all free.

What is it they always say?  "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is."

Google.  When does the bill get presented?

[sanglant]

Ben, can't you just set them up as going to a number beyond the rest of your list? this is the help page on it.

[Sergeant Bob]

Ben, can't you just set them up as going to a number beyond the rest of your list? this is the help page on it.

I'm beginning to think you are the missing Link 

[Ben]

Ben, can't you just set them up as going to a number beyond the rest of your list? this is the help page on it.

I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, so I might be reading that wrong, but it looks like that's the instructions for what I do now -- setting the Google number to forward to specific phones. I have a Google number that I assign to ring on certain phones. In my case I set it to ring both my personal and work cell, and only give the number out to close friends and family.

What I was thinking would be cool was to have essentially a "throwaway" Google number to give for instance, to businesses that won't give you a quote on something without a phone number that they can sell to telemarketers, or to annoying people I don't want to talk to. Essentially a number that "goes into the ether" but that I can still check and use for certain things like the above examples, thus protecting the integrity of my "main" phone numbers.

[sanglant]

i was aiming at. set the main number straight to voice mail. then add the people you want to talk(but not always find you) to, to a contact group set to ring the numbers you want. then set the people you always want to be able to find you to a contact group set to the same numbers, and if you don't answer. either go to a emergency/prepaid cell phone or just a number your more likely to answer, or a voice mail with contact information. only trouble is if some one on the last 2 lists is calling from a strange number. the other option is a second number, something like skype or magicjack might work. but the second google number wouldn't cost you anything,(for now at least) but i would e-mail them first if you can't live without the service.(they might be a delete secondary accounts, or both )

man that's hard to read, sorry about that. maybe someone can translate it into english, i have no idea what i was trying to say now.