OK, I know you may get tired of hearing about Google. The company and its products are mentioned in the news, advertisements, people talk about it and I write about it often. But hey, they have a lot of beneficial items. Since I have been having online YouTube almost every week, I found out how some of them are very interesting, helpful, and useful for work and/or home.
Google started Voice in 2009, so if you have not used it personally, I imagine you have talked to others who have it on their phones (voice.google.com). It is a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service which many companies use for their phone service. It sounds much better than the phone systems of old. However, Google most likely has a better price. If you use it on your smartphone and call anywhere in the US and Canada there is no charge. You may call either landlines or other smartphones whether they have the Google app or not.
All it needs is a microphone and a speaker to talk and listen through. That means that you can make calls on most any device today be it a tablet, PC, or phone.
OK, why use it since you already have a phone? First, you can have a second phone number with a local area code. You can place calls from your phone on that number and when you call someone online on any internet-connected device. They will see that same number and know it is yours. Next, it allows you to share that number on different phones like your home number and office number along with your smartphone. They all ring if that number is called and you just answer the one you wish to use. You may then transfer a call you originally received on your house phone as you walk out to the car. Check here for directions on how to set everything up.
It also connects with your Google contacts. It allows you to create multiple voicemail responses. Use those last two together and you get an amazing combo. You can create a response for your business associates, one for your friends, and even one for people not in your address book to handle the spam. While in voice.google.com you set up your users to match to a specific voicemail you created and you are good to go.
I do not use the call screening feature; however, you can listen to the person start their voicemail to you and interrupt if you wish to speak to them. Too cumbersome for me, but many people depend on it.
The final thing I will mention today about Google Voice is that you may also set it to send your voicemails to your Gmail account. When you get a voicemail, you will receive the recording attached to an email. But the best part (in my opinion) is that you do not have to listen to it. You will also get quite accurate transcriptions of the calls as the email text. Most of them I do not even listen to as the transcript is usually spot-on; however, some names and company names are not always perfect.
If you want more details on how to set this up, go to GrayHaired.Tech this week and register for a free account before Wednesday.
