Google Voice Review: Real World Use by a Small Business Owner

What is Google Voice?

Google Voice is a *free* service that gives you one number for all your phones, voicemail that is easy as email, and many enhanced calling features like call blocking and screening, voicemail transcripts, call conferencing, international calls, and more.

Background Information:

GrandCentral first launched in 2006 and was acquired by Google in July 2007 for upwards of $50 million dollars. After the acquisition, GrandCentral basically remained unchanged and seemingly ignored for 21 long months.  After considerable frustration over the lack of communication from Google, the newly branded Google Voice finally went live earlier this month.

Features:

Google number – One number for all your calls and SMS

• Call screening – Announce and screen callers
• Listen in – Listen before taking a call
• Block calls – Keep unwanted callers at bay
• SMS – Send, receive, and store SMS
• Place calls – Call US numbers for free
• Taking calls – Answer on any of your phones
• Phone routing – Phones ring based on who calls
• Forwarding phones – Add phones and decide which ring

Google voicemail – Voicemail as easy as email, with transcripts

• Call screening – Announce and screen callers
• Listen in – Listen before taking a call
• Block calls – Keep unwanted callers at bay
• SMS – Send, receive, and store SMS
• Place calls – Call US numbers for free
• Taking calls – Answer on any of your phones
• Phone routing – Phones ring based on who calls
• Forwarding phones – Add phones and decide which ring

Voice features – More cool things you can do with Google Voice

• Conference calling – Join people into a single call
• Call record – Record calls and store them online
• Call switch – Switch phones during a call
• Mobile site – View your inbox from your mobile
• GOOG-411 – Check directory assistance
• Manage groups – Set preferences by group

How to Get Google Voice:

Unfortunately, it’s currently only available to current GrandCentral users. If you have a GrandCentral account, just log in and look for a link at the top of your inbox. Not all GrandCentral account holders have the option to “upgrade” to Google Voice just yet, but it should be ready within the next few days.

If you don’t have a GrandCentral account, click here to get an invite from Google.

Small Busines Use:

Google Voice is great if you run a small business. It’s not necessarily meant for business-use and is essentially still in a beta status. However, Google Voice enables me to give my number out to both personal and business contacts. Once their contact information is my database, I can control what voice mail message they hear.

A call from an unknown number is easily converted to a contact by simply clicking ‘Add’ from your inbox. The best part about your “inbox” is that you actually get a transcript of voicemail messages. You can literally read the messages people leave you or simply play the message in your web browser. The transcription feature is admittedly still buggy and some of the messages so far have been comically incorrect,  but that aspect is expected to improve over time.

Another useful feature is the ability to share messages. If a voicemail might be useful to someone else, you can easily forward it to them via email or even embed it as an .mp3 on your website.

Google Voice added SMS capability. Without SMS, GrandCentral users had to give out one phone number for calls and another for text messages. This part of the equation makes G Voice truly accessible to cell phone users that also communicate via text.

After a full week of use, I have to say that the 21 months of wait time was worth it. Google Voice is phenomenal and I believe will really shake-up the way a lot of people communicate. Used properly, one dramatically cut down on cell phone bills.

Lastly, I want to thank Tim McDoniel for sending me a GrandCentral invite just a few days before Google Voice came to fruition. Oddly I was actually upgraded to G Voice before he was even though he had been using it for several months. Tim is a fellow Wilmingtonian and a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. He also writes a a highly entertaining and useful blog called Technology in Mind. Tim brilliantly uses Google Voice to communicate with family in Germany for free. Want to find out how he does it? Follow him on Twitter.