Anybody ever use it?
Looks like a way to port your existing phone number... or get a new google phone number.... through which to route all of your comms. Google voicemails become transcripts in email (if you want that), you can whitelist/blacklist incoming phone numbers, have phone calls forwarded to one or more existing phones, etc.
Anybody ever try it? I want more info before I hit this "Port your existing number" button.
https://www.google.com/voice
Edited By GORDON on 1363981150
Google Voice
So, you still pay who ever you currently pay for the phone line you have, but it gets routed through google? Or are you getting free phone service through google?
I use Vonage. For $25/ month, I get unlimited long distance and all of the features you mentioned. Call forwarding, ring hunt groups, transcribed voice mail sent to email(s), etc. I can have calls forwarded to my cell. Or ring at home, then rollover to my cell or ring at home, them my cell, then your mom's house, etc.
The transcribed voice mail emails can get pretty funny when Vonage gets them wrong. But the .wav file is also attached so you can listen to it yourself. Or, you can log into voice mail from your phone. I haven't done that in years.
Oh, if you decide to use them, let me know. If I recruit you, we both get a free month.
Edited By Cakedaddy on 1363982593
I use Vonage. For $25/ month, I get unlimited long distance and all of the features you mentioned. Call forwarding, ring hunt groups, transcribed voice mail sent to email(s), etc. I can have calls forwarded to my cell. Or ring at home, then rollover to my cell or ring at home, them my cell, then your mom's house, etc.
The transcribed voice mail emails can get pretty funny when Vonage gets them wrong. But the .wav file is also attached so you can listen to it yourself. Or, you can log into voice mail from your phone. I haven't done that in years.
Oh, if you decide to use them, let me know. If I recruit you, we both get a free month.
Edited By Cakedaddy on 1363982593
Yes, frequently: 281-901-0911
Call quality has not always been perfect. Sometimes there's a little bit of lag and artifacts you might expect from VoiP. But usually it's just fine, and the problems are increasingly rare.
The great things about it are 1) You can customize different outgoing messages for each caller, 2) You can program how it hunts you down to receive a call based on who is calling (my mother goes straight to voicemail while my friends are put through) and even what time of day (weekdays during the day it tries me at work before ringing my cell), 3) Voicemails get transcribed and emailed to me, and although the transcription is usually pretty useless and sometimes hilarious I like getting that email alert instead of just having to know to check for messages, 4) when I make outgoing calls with it through the website it calls me where I tell it to then calls the other party and shows my Voice number on their caller ID even though I'm on my end on a different phone, 5) It integrates well with my android tablet, and presumably it would be even better with an android cellphone which I need to get around to getting, 6) If I change my cellphone number or my work number it doesn't matter because no one has that anyway so this is relatively permanent, and 7) the outgoing rates for international calls are generally excellent.
The only problem I've had with it was how it handled the outgoing voicemail settings on groups, and it sometimes seems to get confused. Maybe that's eben fixed, I wouldn't know because I just put custom settings on each individual instead of the groups and never had the problem again.
I haven't tried to use it as an actual VoiP, with Google Talk or whatever. I always access the features through the web and receive calls patched through and forwarded to other real phone numbers. So I have no feedback about using it as a direct VoiP.
EDIT: Yeah, all the stuff Cake mentioned, that's also the good stuff about Google. The only difference is I don't pay them anything. Well, I did once pay them $0.04 because I had to call The Netherlands and talk with someone there for 8 minutes. Except Google gave me a $0.10 credit to my account for free when I signed up and I still have $0.06 cents of that so technically Google has paid me instead of the other way around. But not very much.
SECOND EDIT: Although, I should point out that I don't make or receive very many phonecalls. Maybe one a week. So not paying them works for me, but I have no idea what the limits to being free are. Maybe more calls would start to cost something. I'm not sure.
Edited By TPRJones on 1363984341
Call quality has not always been perfect. Sometimes there's a little bit of lag and artifacts you might expect from VoiP. But usually it's just fine, and the problems are increasingly rare.
The great things about it are 1) You can customize different outgoing messages for each caller, 2) You can program how it hunts you down to receive a call based on who is calling (my mother goes straight to voicemail while my friends are put through) and even what time of day (weekdays during the day it tries me at work before ringing my cell), 3) Voicemails get transcribed and emailed to me, and although the transcription is usually pretty useless and sometimes hilarious I like getting that email alert instead of just having to know to check for messages, 4) when I make outgoing calls with it through the website it calls me where I tell it to then calls the other party and shows my Voice number on their caller ID even though I'm on my end on a different phone, 5) It integrates well with my android tablet, and presumably it would be even better with an android cellphone which I need to get around to getting, 6) If I change my cellphone number or my work number it doesn't matter because no one has that anyway so this is relatively permanent, and 7) the outgoing rates for international calls are generally excellent.
The only problem I've had with it was how it handled the outgoing voicemail settings on groups, and it sometimes seems to get confused. Maybe that's eben fixed, I wouldn't know because I just put custom settings on each individual instead of the groups and never had the problem again.
I haven't tried to use it as an actual VoiP, with Google Talk or whatever. I always access the features through the web and receive calls patched through and forwarded to other real phone numbers. So I have no feedback about using it as a direct VoiP.
EDIT: Yeah, all the stuff Cake mentioned, that's also the good stuff about Google. The only difference is I don't pay them anything. Well, I did once pay them $0.04 because I had to call The Netherlands and talk with someone there for 8 minutes. Except Google gave me a $0.10 credit to my account for free when I signed up and I still have $0.06 cents of that so technically Google has paid me instead of the other way around. But not very much.
SECOND EDIT: Although, I should point out that I don't make or receive very many phonecalls. Maybe one a week. So not paying them works for me, but I have no idea what the limits to being free are. Maybe more calls would start to cost something. I'm not sure.
Edited By TPRJones on 1363984341
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"
I don't know as I haven't done that, but presumably you still have to pay someone to connect to their cell towers. I'd guess you'd need to get a new number from Verizon to use if you moved your old one to Google. Unless Google is now doing cell phones, but I haven't heard. In theory if you had wifi all the time you could use some sort of VoiP through Google directly without cell service at all, I guess.
Me, I still have my cell, I just don't give that number to anyone. I give them the Google number, and have it connect to me depending on how I've programmed it to do so. No one but me ever even knows it's not my cell number. The Google number is my main number, but Google is more of an intermediary and automatic secretary rather than a phone service provider.
Edited By TPRJones on 1363985792
Me, I still have my cell, I just don't give that number to anyone. I give them the Google number, and have it connect to me depending on how I've programmed it to do so. No one but me ever even knows it's not my cell number. The Google number is my main number, but Google is more of an intermediary and automatic secretary rather than a phone service provider.
Edited By TPRJones on 1363985792
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"
Yeah, i know, i am just trying to figure out how everything fits together.
Seems strange that i would port my existing number to google but keep paying verizon.
Also it is not feasible for me to lose my existing cell number which is how the whole world contacts me. As nice as it would be for the world to not be able to contact me.
Seems strange that i would port my existing number to google but keep paying verizon.
Also it is not feasible for me to lose my existing cell number which is how the whole world contacts me. As nice as it would be for the world to not be able to contact me.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Riddle me this:
We still have a home phone number, going through Time Warner/Roadrunner. We originally got it under a tv/phone/internet package.
We dropped the TV service a while back.
We ar ready to drop that phone service.
In conjunction with Google Voice, how do I get a phone ringing on the home POTS network? I don't even have a phone company line running to my house any more. A few years back it blew down in a storm, and since I didn't have phone service with the phone company they didn't reinstall it.
We still have a home phone number, going through Time Warner/Roadrunner. We originally got it under a tv/phone/internet package.
We dropped the TV service a while back.
We ar ready to drop that phone service.
In conjunction with Google Voice, how do I get a phone ringing on the home POTS network? I don't even have a phone company line running to my house any more. A few years back it blew down in a storm, and since I didn't have phone service with the phone company they didn't reinstall it.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."