GoogleVoice is one of Google’s greatest secrets. It’s not really advertised on their site or in the menus, but it’s a must have for anyone with multiple phone numbers (mobile phone, work phone, home phone, work cell, etc.) and/or a desire to also control their voicemail and texting from a computer. Here’s what Google has to say about GoogleVoice.

The hightlights are:

• One Number for Them All – It’s great if you have multiple numbers like a home phone, work phone, cell phone, etc. When people call the GV number, it will ring all the numbers and the first to pick up is the one that takes the call.
• Control Who Gets Through and When – Since it integrates with your Google Contacts, you can set who gets through to what numbers. It works great when you set people in groups (friends, family, etc) and then set the groups to be able to get to certain numbers at certain times. You can also set it so that if it’s a person that’s not in your contacts, they get sent directly to VM. You can also set the hours when it forwards to which number, so, for example, if you work from 9am-5pm Mon-Fri all the time, you can set it so that it just rings your work phone during that time or your work phone and cell phone. If you don’t want to be disturbed at certain times (like 5am), you can just have it go to VM directly at those times.
• Get a New Number and Retain Your Old Number – Move to a new area and want to have a local number but you don’t want to go through the headaches of telling everyone the new number? GV allows you to get a phone number in pretty much any area code and then have the calls forwarded to your old number. That way, you get all the calls.
• Keep the Same Number Even If You Move – Let’s say you have your GV number forwarding over to your work number and your home phone and then you either get a new work number or a new house number. By using your GV number with people, you just have to change the forwarding number in the Settings and the GV call will be forwarded to the new number. Best of all? It doesn’t appear like anything changed to those who call your GV number.
• Voice Mail Transcription – VMs on that number are able to be played on a computer and they are transcribed for you (some better than others) and sent to your email so you can read them. It recognizes phone numbers really well, so even if the message is not perfectly transcribed, you can click on the number and call them back without having to write it down.
• Personalized VM Outgoing Messages – Some people want to have fun outgoing messages, but they resist the urge to do so since they want to appear professional should an employer or client calls. Google Voice allows you to record alternate greetings for calling groups so that your friends get the fun message and other people get the vanilla, boring, professional greeting.
• Blocks Known Telemarketers – It blocks most known telemarketing numbers from getting through by keeping a list of numbers submitted by users.
• Blocks Anyone You Want – I know what you’re saying to yourself right now: “I can already do that from my phone and the call automatically goes to VM. Why do I need this?” This is like that, but on steroids. If you don’t want to talk to someone who is calling you all the time, you can put them on the block list and it gives them the generic “This number has been disconnected or is no longer in use” message (same as when it is actually disconnected). If a telemarketer isn’t automatically blocked, this message will cause them to remove you from their list. If it’s an old friend or someone who you used to date calling, they’ll get the hint.
• Call Recording – You can record calls when you call through your Google Voice number by pressing a key.
• Free Text Messaging – Text messaging is free and you can also do it from the computer. MMS isn’t available to everyone right now, but it looks like it will be soon.

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B_Jacobs

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