Google Voice 101.1- Google Number

Ok, so a lot of people have been asking me about Google Voice. In it’s never ending quest to eventually rule the world (which is fine by me), Google bought a company known as GrandCentral. Currently, it is in closed beta testing, and not yet avaiable for public use. I am breaking down the overview of Google Voice into three parts. If you would like to watch all of the videos provided by Google, you can simply go to http://www.google.com/voice

The concept behind Google Voice is simple: you have one number, and that is the number you give to everyone you come into contact with. This does NOT take the place of your work, home, or mobile phone. Rather, it gives its users the ability to route calls based on who’s calling. I’ll cover the basics of your Google Number in this first article.

Forwarding Phones
The first step in utilizing Google Voice is to set up your forwarded phones. This is done by settings>phone>Add a new number. From here, one would input all of their phone numbers that they would want Google Voice to access. You can custom label each phone (i.e. iPhone, Orange Sidekick, etc.) and enter it’s type (home phone, mobile phone, work phone.) It is important to note that, by default, each newly entered phone is set to ring when ANY group calls. We’ll dive into groups later.

Phone Routing
Once you have all of your phone numbers entered into Google Voice, the next step would be to route calls. For example, if you want all of your contacts under the group labeled “Work” to ring only your desk phone, this would be the spot to tell Google Voice to do that. This is done by going to settings>phone. You can also set groups to ring all phones.

Let’s say you go to a work conference and give out your Google Number. When anyone from work calls 212-555-5555, only your desk phone would ring. If, however, you wanted to be sure that you never missed a family call, when someone in that group calls the same number, ALL phones could be set to ring.

You can set phone routing settings on an individual basis as well. By selecting a specific contact, you have the additional options of sending that number straight to voice mail, treating it as spam, or simply blocking that number altogether… which brings us to the next feature.

Blocking Calls
If you can’t find a way to stop those persistent exes from calling, the need to periodically get a new cell phone number has been eradicated by Google Voice!! Of course, there are probably other reasons out there for blocking specific phone numbers, I just haven’t come across any yet.

When anyone under the call block feature tries to call you, they  will hear an operator tone followed by the message, “We’re sorry, you have reached a number that has either been disconnected or is no longer in service.”

Take that, Jenny Robinson.

Taking Calls
Just as you get used to giving out one number while still paying for three, people will begin calling. This is when the Google magic kicks in.

After you answer your phone, Google will announce who is calling. While the caller unsupsectingly listens to droning ring tones on the other end, you will have the option to do one of five things. You can either accept the call, reject it,  accept and record the call, send the call to voicemail, or listen in on the voicemail (more on that function soon).

Placing Calls
In order to maintain the allure of having only one phone number, we obviously want that number to pop up on the caller ID when you call. For this, placing a call is no longer as simple as picking up the phone and dialing. The good news, however, is that we’ve never had so many different ways to make a phone call.

To place a call from your phone, you would simply dial your Google Number and select Option 2. After doing this, you would then dial the number you wish to call. With this feature, calls can be made from anywhere that a phone is available.

Calls can also be made from the web in your Google Voice homepage. You can select a number from a contact, or you can manually input the number yourself. The phone of your choice will then ring, and Google will connect that phone to the destination number.

SMS
Users can receive text messages to their Google Number at any mobile device. All text messages received are stored in the Google Voice inbox. You can reply with a text to any voicemails in your inbox. You also have the ability to directly text anyone with your Google Voice number via the web.

Call Screening
With the call screening feature,  Google Voice does everything it can to make sure you know who is calling before you answer the phone. If a contact dials your Google Number, their name will be announced to you, giving you the option to handle the call accordingly.  You have the choice to select between screening all unknown callers, or blocked calls only. In either case, when an unknown number calls, Google will ask that they record their name before connecting the call to you. Your phone will then ring, announcing the name of the caller.

Listen In
I have saved the best feature in this section for last. Do you remember the pre-caller ID days, when you’d sit on your couch and let the answering machine pick up? If it was somebody calling to offer you magazine subscriptions at an UNBELIEVABLE rate, you’d simply go back to watching the Star Trek marathon. If, however, it was somebody like Jenny Robinson, I mean… somebody important, you’d leap off of the couch faster than a frog on a lily-pad and pray to the phone gods that you’d be able to pick the phone up in time before the person calling finished leaving their voice mail.

Well, thanks to caller ID, we no longer have to wait for the answering machine to pick up before we can decide whether or not the call is worth taking. In the spirit of what I can only see as nostalgia, however, Google Voice has offered the listen in capability. Personally, I think it seems a bit creepy, but to each their own.

After a cursory glance at the caller ID, you may decide not to take a call. If the mood strikes you, with the Listen In feature, you can opt to listen to the voice mail that the person you just callously ignored is leaving as they are leaving it. If you retro-actively decide that the call is worth taking, you can press the number 3 and automatically be connected to the call.

That’s it for the section 1 review of Google Voice. Stay tuned for section 2, where I go over all features of Google Voicemail.