Linuxphile.org

I am an avid supporter of Google. It is with no surprise that I found myself submitting my email address for an invitation to Google's latest product, Google Voice. Approximately two weeks after applying, after a podcast begging for an invitation I did receive the invitation.

So, after two days of usage, tinkering, and looking around what do I think? I think it has great potential, however, Google Voice has a long way to go. After receiving my new Google Voice number I had my mother call me from a land line. This worked great! Google Voice came configured to require callers to announce themselves so I could hear my mother saying her name. After pressing 1 our call was connected and the quality was superb.

I next asked a friend to call my new Google number from their cell phone. This friend has an iPhone and obviously AT&T service. No love. The dreaded "doo doo doo doo doo" tone followed by the pleasant female voice stating "the number you have reached is not in service." AFter a bit of research I discovered that Google was already aware of the problem. That was good news. Google has developed a support form http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=16505 to track this problem and help gather information.

So I cannot use the Google Voice number as my primary number due to the inability for some callers to connect, however, I am still exploring the features.

One of the features I am absolutely loving is voicemail transcription. I'm a busy person, I don't always have time to chat about the weather, road conditions, or the price of tea in China, so I don't always answer my phone. Having the voicemails transcribed and sent via email and text allows me to screen calls and be notified if I need to return a call immediately.

Group contacts and forwarding features are wonderful. Believe it or not I have contacts setup for most of the companies with which I do business (home telephone, cable, electric, fuel, etc). I have setup a group within in Google Voice contacts that I have forwarded immediately to my Google Voice Voicemail. I also have the fowarding setup to send any family member directly to my mobile phone.

On my home landline I do not have long distance. In fact, I only have a landline at home so that I can maintain the DSL service, as slow as it is. With Google Voice I can sign in and make a call from the web interface. Google Voice will first call my mobile phone then connect the call to the number entered on the web interface. With this service I can now place what would normally be long distance calls at no charge at all.

My mobile phone is an iPhone with AT&T service. As I'm sure many of you are aware Google's Mobile Voice application was rejected from the Apple store. In fact any Google Voice enabled application that was previously approved has since been removed. Apparently the FCC is investigating this but I have doubts that this investigation will or should go anywhere. (As soon as an Android based phone is available for AT&T I'll dump the iPhone).

Google Voice isn't there yet, but the promise is great and the feature set today is rich. Once Google works the kinks with carries and finally conqueors number portability I believe the telecoms will have another rival.