When I started using Google Voice in the summer of 2009, I was a little shocked at the features of this application.
Google Voice basically gives you the ability to do the following: have one local phone number that you can pick (generally) that you can set up to have all of your phones to ring when someone calls your Google Voice number, not only saves voicemails online but also transcribes your voicemail into text and even lets you listen in on the voicemail as it is being left. Finally, you can block certain callers AND record messages for individuals like your husband, work, or the annoying neighbor. It also can act as a phone that can call internationally where you pay a low price to call.
After signing up for my phone number, I didn't really play with it at all. But, today, after using it with my husband, it is absolutely awesome! For families who are cancelling home phone numbers, this is totally the way to go. You can set it up to have all of your cell phone numbers to ring, some of your numbers to ring, one number to ring, etc when someone calls your Google Voice number. It is a great way to have a central phone number and a way for someone to get ahold of you no matter what, especially if you are waiting for an important phone call.
One function I found frustrating is that out of the four times that my husband called me as we trying it out, he was only able to reach me 3 of the 4 times. It did, however, record every voicemail he left and with a 90% accuracy it transcribed it for me. It even sent me a text message AND email telling me I had a voicemail, and showed up as a voicemail on my cell phone, as well. Also, when I deleted the voicemail on Google Voice, it deleted on my phone, and vice versa. That is convenient for me so I'm not listening twice to these voicemails.
This might be a good resource in my classroom if I wanted to create a Google Voice account for them to leave me voicemails for their oral exams. It even lets me send them all to voicemail so I don't have to listen to the ring! Unfortunately, they don't transcribe in Spanish so I won't be able to look at the transcription. I think this would be a great assessment tool for World Language teachers!
Also, we could talk to students in other countries using Google Voice. In fact, a 5 minute conversation would cost us $.10. It'd be a great, inexpensive way to cheaply integrate culture into my classroom.
I could use this for coaching. Since you can assign your Google Contacts (yes, from Gmail, etc) to different groups, Google Voice allows you to assign different groups a different voicemail. Even different people to different voicemails. If I wanted, I could assign my JV volleyball girls a voicemail as to what is going on for the week in case they forget, or what time the tournament is and expectations, etc.
The list goes on and on.
I believe that in order to use this application you must be invited by another user or you must sign up and be invited by Google. From what I understand, it is still in the BETA stages of development.
After signing up for my phone number, I didn't really play with it at all. But, today, after using it with my husband, it is absolutely awesome! For families who are cancelling home phone numbers, this is totally the way to go. You can set it up to have all of your cell phone numbers to ring, some of your numbers to ring, one number to ring, etc when someone calls your Google Voice number. It is a great way to have a central phone number and a way for someone to get ahold of you no matter what, especially if you are waiting for an important phone call.
One function I found frustrating is that out of the four times that my husband called me as we trying it out, he was only able to reach me 3 of the 4 times. It did, however, record every voicemail he left and with a 90% accuracy it transcribed it for me. It even sent me a text message AND email telling me I had a voicemail, and showed up as a voicemail on my cell phone, as well. Also, when I deleted the voicemail on Google Voice, it deleted on my phone, and vice versa. That is convenient for me so I'm not listening twice to these voicemails.
This might be a good resource in my classroom if I wanted to create a Google Voice account for them to leave me voicemails for their oral exams. It even lets me send them all to voicemail so I don't have to listen to the ring! Unfortunately, they don't transcribe in Spanish so I won't be able to look at the transcription. I think this would be a great assessment tool for World Language teachers!
Also, we could talk to students in other countries using Google Voice. In fact, a 5 minute conversation would cost us $.10. It'd be a great, inexpensive way to cheaply integrate culture into my classroom.
I could use this for coaching. Since you can assign your Google Contacts (yes, from Gmail, etc) to different groups, Google Voice allows you to assign different groups a different voicemail. Even different people to different voicemails. If I wanted, I could assign my JV volleyball girls a voicemail as to what is going on for the week in case they forget, or what time the tournament is and expectations, etc.
The list goes on and on.
I believe that in order to use this application you must be invited by another user or you must sign up and be invited by Google. From what I understand, it is still in the BETA stages of development.
Wow, interesting stuff. It seems a bit overwhelming but I imagine you must play with it as you did to figure it out. I love google video chat by the way! I am planning to try to get my family to get google accounts so they can see my little boy!.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how many people can use Google Video - how many web cams can you have at once? We used Oovoo this last year for my father in law's birthday. There were 3 web cams (Tampa, Boston and Detroit) and if you actually want to pay $$ there can be a lot more.
ReplyDeleteKerry,
ReplyDeleteGoogle Voice sounds awesome! My husband is trying to convince me to dump our home line, but I don't want everyone to contact me on my cell ;) You said..."You can set it up to have all of your cell phone numbers to ring, some of your numbers to ring, one number to ring, etc when someone calls your Google Voice number." If what I read is correct, we could choose only a few phones to ring through (not mine) and I'd still feel that people can keep in touch. It sure sounds like there are many positives without many drawbacks. Any idea what happens when the BETA stage is over?
Yes, that's exactly what you can do! And you can change it whenever you want! For example, if your husband leaves the country on business and you want to make sure that they're calling a phone in-country, you can do it for that week and then take it off when he gets back. I think you can even add numbers (so if you both go out of the country you can have whoever is calling the number call your parents' phone).
ReplyDeleteI am REALLY hoping that when it comes out of BETA we can use Google Voice all over the world (right now we can only use it to call in the US and make calls from the US to other countries). We are planning to go to Europe next summer for an extended period of time, and I'd love to use it to call home!