Google Voice Gives You One Number to Ring Them All

The service, which launched publicly this week, includes automatic transcription of voicemail and recording of calls

By John Brandon Posted 06.26.2009 at 11:02 am 3 Comments

Google Voice is one of those technical advancements that could change your way of communication. With it, you can sign up for a single phone number that rings every phone you own. Then you can hand out the number to everyone you know.

Google acquired GrandCentral.com, the creator of the service, in 2007, and changed the name to Google Voice. The service now supports speech-to-text, using Google's technology, so that voicemails are transcribed automatically and sent to you by email.

Once you sign up, when someone calls your Google Voice number, your home phone, cell phone, desk phone at the office, and even your Internet voice-over-IP number will ring, all at the same time, no matter where you are. It means you can switch phone numbers at any time, but retain a single Google Voice number for years.

This week, the service started granting access for public use, so if you signed up several weeks or months ago, you will likely receive a message that the service is live. If you have not signed up, you can do so here.

The service has several interesting additional perks. When a call arrives, you can press 4 to record the call. You can also listen in while the caller leaves a message, and interrupt to answer. Recorded calls are not transcribed, but you can listen to them online.

There are some minor caveats. Some people will be reluctant to give over yet another aspect of their life to the giant; Google reads our mail, and now it's listening to our phone calls. Placing calls is cumbersome: you have to go to a Web browser on your phone, access Google Voice, select which phone to use, and place the call. And Google Voice simply hands the call off to your wireless carrier. But the power of one number ringing many lines, and near-instant text transcription of voicemail, is enough to make the service worth a try.

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3 Comments

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bdhoro87

from coral gables, fl

06/27/09 at 8:57 am

Very interesting concept, because we do need to make some serious changes, now with cellphones being most people's primary phone, and phones being more linked to people than locations.

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greswolde

06/29/09 at 4:45 am

I dont see what the issue is.

If I want people to just call me at home, they get my home number, if I want them to reach me where ever I am they get my mobile or if I want them to have the option they get both numbers etc.

I used to have all my fiends and families numbers committed to memory but since I have had a mobile phone I can only remember my own numbers. I guess thats the same with most people.

Current mobile software makes it very easy to assign and chose from many numbers for the same contact so why is this service helping given the apparent difficulty to actually calling someone?

www.greswolde.com
www.greswoldephotography.co.uk

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bdhoro87

from coral gables, fl

06/29/09 at 9:26 am

Well if all you have is your cell and and your home phone its not a big deal at all. But calling methods are changing, many people have multiple cell phones, like one for personal and one for business use, making calls from internet services, or for traveling a lot to different homes etc.
The real benefit isn't just having people call the single number for all your phones, but it provides some of the services we've gotten used to from both home phones and cell phones and combines them. For example, if someone leaves you a voice mail on your cell, normally you can't listen to the message and pick it up during the message like you would on a home answering machine. Its these little features that will be the selling point I think. Another example, if you receive a call from the house, but are on your way out, now you can transfer the call from the house to the cell and continue on your way, or just choose which one to pick up when they both ring.