So I got my Google Voice invite yesterday...

alaskaflyer

alaskaflyer

Final Approach
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Alaskaflyer
...anyone else using it?

I'm having a hard time investigating the rumored disadvantages of being a potential Alaska user. No information (other than no 907 area code numbers available) though I am still Googling about it (slight irony.)
 
I've had it since it was Grand Central but have not really used it. Just never gave the number out to anyone. I did test it and it seemed to work. Sorry I can't help more.
 
I've had mine for about a month now. I love this thing. It's especially handy for the guys at work to find me. Only one number to call, and if I'm by a phone, they find me.

Only problem I've had is with registering a couple of phones. Found out the hard way that not all VOIP phones support out-going DTMF tones, which you need to verify a number and answer GV calls when you have call announce turned on. I'm tired of Vonage, so I'm exploring new VOIP services. VoicePulse doesn't support outgoing DTMF, so I'm researching others now. Vonage works fine, but their customer service is terrible. Plus I'm tired of not having selective call forwarding when other VOIP services offer it.

But, Google Voice works great for me so far. I've freaked a couple of people out with personalized voicemail announcements though. :D
 
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1. What is it?

2. How does one get "invited"? Is it like it was with GMail, where someone "in" has to tag you?
 
SCCutler said:
1. What is it?

2. How does one get "invited"? Is it like it was with GMail, where someone "in" has to tag you?
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It's one contact number where people can call you and reach you at any phone number you happen to be at. No more calling your home, then cell, then work etc to track you down. It's easier to watch the video from Google to understand it because it's much more than just that.:

voice.google.com

There are a lot of features not in that video. Here's a complete list:

Google Voice Features.

You can sign up to be put on the invite list from that site. If there's a way for a current GV user to send invites, I haven't found it.

One of my favorite features is call switch. If your on the phone at home, and want to continue the call on your cell because you are walking out the door. Just hit * to transfer the call to your cell and keep talking. The caller never knows you switched.
 
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Not like the old Gmail where another user had to invite you (that is no longer true either.)

What they call an "invitation" is actually a system for a slow, staged rollout of the service in beta. You submit your email address and you are put on a waiting list for the next wave of invitations as they scale the service.

I'm usually an enthusiastic early adopter but because I live up here (which has some issues with what amounts to "international" phone service from the conus) I'm trying to decide whether to sign up now or later when some bugs are worked out, becasue Google claims that once you sign up for a number you can't change it. Maybe I'll pick my mother-in-law's area code since I can't pick my own ;) I'm probably being too old school about this. My efax number is somewhere in western Kentucky.
 
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ausrere said:
One of my favorite features is call switch.
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That is one reason I want it, because I walk in and out of marginal cell phone coverage. The other big one is voice mail transcription. I sit in a lot of long meetings with voice mails piling up and even though it isn't perfect I'd like to be able to read through and get the gist of what the caller wants.

I think what they are banking on (other than data collection and on-screen advertising) is users using it as their primary VoIP telephone service for international calls, for which they charge a few cents a minute. Apparently their rates will be very competitive.
 
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I'm still waiting for my invite. I can't wait....Google Voice on my Google Phone makes me almost wet my pants.
 
alaskaflyer said:
I'm usually an enthusiastic early adopter but because I live up here (which has some issues with what amounts to "international" phone service from the conus) I'm trying to decide whether to sign up now or later when some bugs are worked out, becasue Google claims that once you sign up for a number you can't change it. Maybe I'll pick my mother-in-law's area code since I can't pick my own ;) I'm probably being too old school about this. My efax number is somewhere in western Kentucky.
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You can change your Google number now. I think there is a $10 charge for doing it. I hope they at some point they allow a second number, or "virtual" number. About half the people that call me on a regular basis live in the DFW area, the other half are in Austin. I went with a DFW number because most of my family was there, and a vanity number I could use was also there. But it'd be nice to have an Austin number for local callers here to use. But, I like the service well enough, I've started giving it out as my primary number.

My second favorite feature is "Listen In". Just like old answering machines. You can listen to who is leaving you a message and decide to "pick up" if you want.
 
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The link says, "Coming Soon".
How are you folks getting on now?

"When can I sign up?
We expect to have the service ready for new users in a matter of weeks, and are focused on opening it as soon as possible."
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
The link says, "Coming Soon".
How are you folks getting on now?

"When can I sign up?
We expect to have the service ready for new users in a matter of weeks, and are focused on opening it as soon as possible."
Click to expand...

Click the "Get an Invite" link. Enter your name and email address, and Google will send you an invite as they add users. It's a slow roll-out for now and you have to wait for an invitation. I signed up way back when Google bought Grand Central some time last year and just got my invite a month ago. But I have friends who asked for an invitation a few weeks ago and just got their invitations.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
The link says, "Coming Soon".
How are you folks getting on now?

"When can I sign up?
We expect to have the service ready for new users in a matter of weeks, and are focused on opening it as soon as possible."
Click to expand...

It is "coming soon" for you ;) For others who signed up earlier from that screen, it just came :D I imagine that fairly soon (in a matter of weeks or months) you will probably be able to simply sign up in real-time instead of waiting for the next "stage" of invitations.
 
I couldn't resist. I asked for an invite.
 
ausrere said:
Only problem I've had is with registering a couple of phones. Found out the hard way that not all VOIP phones support out-going DTMF tones, which you need to verify a number and answer GV calls when you have call announce turned on. I'm tired of Vonage, so I'm exploring new VOIP services. VoicePulse doesn't support outgoing DTMF, so I'm researching others now. Vonage works fine, but their customer service is terrible. Plus I'm tired of not having selective call forwarding when other VOIP services offer it.
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http://www.businesswire.com/portal/...d=news_view&newsId=20090318005388&newsLang=en
 
alaskaflyer said:
I'm usually an enthusiastic early adopter but because I live up here (which has some issues with what amounts to "international" phone service from the conus) I'm trying to decide whether to sign up now or later when some bugs are worked out, becasue Google claims that once you sign up for a number you can't change it.
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I'm pretty sure that changed -- now you can change your number, but they charge $10 for that (to discourage folks from changing too often, I suppose).

I've been using Google Voice for over a year now (used to be called Grandcentral). It was great when I moved from Boston to California, since I could give folks a phone number in California before I established phone service, and my number has remained constant through a couple of moves and cell phone providers. I've also used the Android app, and that (now that the bugs are worked out) works pretty well for me too.

Chris

(Disclaimer: I work for Google, but not on Google Voice.)
 
I have had GV for a few months -- as an old Grand Central user, I got one of the early upgrades.

I use it for everything -- and since I'm on an Android-based cellphone, the new Google Voice integration with the dialer is *unreal*.

Voice-to-text translation of voicemails, integration with my central contacts, very cheap international dialing, user listing, all of these things in a familiar interface. The voice-to-text translation makes life very easy -- people who wouldn't normally email me now email me, since I reply (very quickly) to most voicemails via text message or email.

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
I got my invite and signed up today, 11 days later, so there isn't that much of a wait. Now to figure out how to use it....
 
Everskyward said:
I got my invite and signed up today, 11 days later, so there isn't that much of a wait. Now to figure out how to use it....
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It's pretty easy to use. Kind of freaky the first time every phone within reach of you starts ringing all at once though. :D

I've pretty much started using mine as my primary phone number.
 
Got my invite today and hooked it up to my cell. Was cool to pick my own number from a pool of available ones.
 
The first thing I'm wondering about is how to handle voicemail. I have voicemail on my iPhone and an answering machine on my home phone. How long does it take before the Google number goes to voicemail? I think it's probably the easiest for me to check voicemail on the iPhone and the hardest on my home phone. In fact I almost never check my home phone answering machine remotely. I bumped it up to 6 rings which is the max so that it won't be picking up too soon. Of course I haven't given my Google phone number to anyone yet...
 
Everskyward said:
The first thing I'm wondering about is how to handle voicemail. I have voicemail on my iPhone and an answering machine on my home phone. How long does it take before the Google number goes to voicemail? I think it's probably the easiest for me to check voicemail on the iPhone and the hardest on my home phone. In fact I almost never check my home phone answering machine remotely. I bumped it up to 6 rings which is the max so that it won't be picking up too soon. Of course I haven't given my Google phone number to anyone yet...
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GV rings for 25 seconds. I just adjusted my home and cell phone to ring for more than 25 seconds to keep them from picking up before GV does.
 
The g1 has a google voice app. Its sick! Does the iPhone not have one (for free?)
 
got my invite today. I am so techically clueless, I have no idea what it can do. I clicked the signup button and entered my home and cell phone, now what do I do?
What can GV do for me?
 
ausrere said:
There isn't one by Google, but there was one called GV Mobile that's not bad. Has the look and feel of the iPhone dialer and visual voice mail. I tried a couple of the others, and I like this one best. But, Apple just yanked it from the app store, supposedly for "duplicating features that the iPhone comes with." :rolleyes:
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The G1 version is from google, and it actually allows all outbound calls to come from your GV line. That's awesome.

Down with the iPhone :D
 
ausrere said:
There isn't one by Google, but there was one called GV Mobile that's not bad. Has the look and feel of the iPhone dialer and visual voice mail. I tried a couple of the others, and I like this one best. But, Apple just yanked it from the app store, supposedly for "duplicating features that the iPhone comes with." :rolleyes:
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Oh, its also available for the Blackberry. So of the 4 main PDA platforms, 2 of them support it now.

Dollars to Doughnuts WM gets it before iPhone.
 
SkyHog said:
Oh, its also available for the Blackberry. So of the 4 main PDA platforms, 2 of them support it now.

Dollars to Doughnuts WM gets it before iPhone.
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Probably. It's all AT&T's doing. I'm sure they are working overtime trying to figure out how to handicap the other platforms on AT&T's network too though.
 
Interesting article on this subject.

The FCC is asking Apple and AT&T all the right questions

Why did Apple reject the Google Voice? Did it do it for its own reasons, or did AT&T twist its arm? If so, why does AT&T support Google Voice for its BlackBerry users? What is the nature of Apple’s relationship with AT&T? Or, for that matter, with Google? And how, exactly, does this whole App Store approval process work?
The FCC asks all these questions and more in the letters linked to below. The agency has a mandate to make sure telephone service is available to all Americans who need it, even in remote rural areas.
It has launched a broad investigation into the kind of exclusive deals that have, for example, let Apple sell iPhones to AT&T’s customers but not Verizon’s (VZ).
We wish them them well.

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ausrere said:
Don't you know there is several teams of attorneys working over-time right now. :D
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I think it's funny that the week I got my GV phone number they pulled the application. I never got to download it or see what it did. GV still rings my iPhone so that part is not a problem. I'm working on figuring out why voicemail sometimes gets picked up by GV and sometimes my iPhone. The default time for a call to go to voicemail on the iPhone is 20 seconds and I have timed it at 20 seconds, however sometimes GV picks up first even though the default time for GV is supposed to be 25 seconds. At this point I would rather have voicemail go to my iPhone instead of GV since I have automatic e-mail turned off and I don't have unlimited texting. [EDIT: I have checked and I can get 200 text messages for $5/month so that is a better option than the 20 cents per message I pay now... not that I need to be so cheap but 20 cents/message seems outrageous to me.] Maybe I could create a dedicated e-mail address and have that one turned on. At least voicemail doesn't go to my home phone which would be my last choice. The whole idea seems pretty nice and I'll probably start using it once I work the kinks out.

Another thing is that I got an automated sales call (for health insurance I think) on my GV number even though I haven't given it to anyone yet, so I put the new number on the national no-call list. I guess these companies just dial random phone numbers.
 
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Everskyward said:
Maybe I could create a dedicated e-mail address and have that one turned on. At least voicemail doesn't go to my home phone which would be my last choice. The whole idea seems pretty nice and I'll probably start using it once I work the kinks out.
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There's a lot of talk in the GV help forums about requests to add a SMS>email delivery of SMS messages. That would be nice for those that don't have unlimited txt messaging. I really like the transcripts of voicemail delivered to both txt messaging and my email. It's not perfect, but it's accurate enough for me to see if I need to call the person back right away without even listening to voicemail. Transcripts come in handy when you are in the middle of a meeting and can't listen to the message. I have one friend however, that refuses to turn down his TV in the background when he calls me, and GV just gives up trying to transcribe his messages.



Another thing is that I got an automated sales call (for health insurance I think) on my GV number even though I haven't given it to anyone yet, so I put the new number on the national no-call list. I guess these companies just dial random phone numbers.
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I haven't seen any of those yet. Don't forget you can mark that call as spam on the GV web interface. After you mark it, calls go directly to GV voicemail without ringing any of your phones, and the voicemail messages goes to a spam folder for auto deletion. You can also blacklist that caller if you'd rather they get a "Disconnected" message instead of voicemail. That's part of my top 5 reasons for loving GV.
 
I just start with GV it's got some good features. I like the phone number I got. But here's an example of text translation.

GV Version:
hey joe it's store tonight and whenever courtesy and let me know what time is for 12 10 mountain time 12 10 central time but 10 10 pacific time and i'll be here for a because now it's about 240 right if the so if you can be it's tim i'm about to for your you know and then the 250...
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Here's my transcription:
Hey Joe, It's Stuart and I and we're in Albuquerque and right now the time is 12:10 Mountain Time, 12:10 Central time so that is 10:10 Pacific Time. We'll be there (unintelligible) about 2:40 right Pacific Time so if you can be at Santa Monica 2:40 or around then you know whatever or 2:50...
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I hope that when I learn what gets transcribed and what doesn't, I will find it this more useful.

Joe
 
A hiccup for me is: because I am forced to have a GV number outside of Alaska (because none are available up here) I cannot use GV to make calls to Alaska without incurring a 4 cent per minute charge. As far as they know I am calling from Nevada (where my GV number is located) to Alaska :nonod: That isn't much, but outgoing calls from my cell phone are free.

I'm not going to be using GV for any outgoing calls much at all but I have really enjoyed using it for incoming calls.
 
alaskaflyer said:
A hiccup for me is: because I am forced to have a GV number outside of Alaska (because none are available up here) I cannot use GV to make calls to Alaska without incurring a 4 cent per minute charge. As far as they know I am calling from Nevada (where my GV number is located) to Alaska :nonod: That isn't much, but outgoing calls from my cell phone are free.

I'm not going to be using GV for any outgoing calls much at all but I have really enjoyed using it for incoming calls.
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GV considers calls to Alaska international?
 
SkyHog said:
GV considers calls to Alaska international?
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Well, I don't know if they consider them "international" but they charge 4 c per minute to Alaska or Hawaii. There are similar telco long distance issues to/from Alaska and Hawaii too so I'm not too surprised - only disappointed.

On the other hand my cell phone doesn't care in which state I am in :smile:
 
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