My Top 5 Google Voice Features
Google Voice is one of the most useful services Google provides. Goggle Voice provides users with a single telephone number that is connected to all of their other phones; Work, Home, Mobile, etc. This alone is a very useful service but it’s the other stuff that comes along with Google Voice that has made me a real fan. When you get Google Voice you get free voicemail transcription, the ability to screen and block callers, personalized greetings for different callers, and free texting.
The following features are what I find really Killer:
1. Send text messages for free or Slam It To Your Carrier.
It’s possible to send and receive texts through your Google Voice number, the Google Voice app on your smartphone, and through Gmail. To send a text through the Google Voice desktop, click Text. Then enter a recipient and your message. However, sending texts through your Gmail account keeps all of your correspondence in one place and saves on texting costs.
To send texts to your Gmail:
- Click Settings > Voice Settings.
- Click Voicemail & Text.
- Check “Forward text messages to my e-mail.”
2. Share voicemails with others by e-mailing them the audio.
It’s easy to share a funny voicemail with a friend.
- Find the message you wish to send from the Google Voice inbox on the desktop.
- Click More below the message.
- Click E-mail, and enter a recipient.
- Add a message.
- Click Send.
Note 2 Self: You can also set GV up so when it receives a call from your cell phone or any phone you specify, it will go to Voice Mail and then when you are done recording your message, email the audio portion and transcribed version to any email address, like your Evernote address or Posterous.com.
3. Create custom voicemail greetings.
Greet your coworkers with one message and your friends with another. You can even specify which phone rings based on who’s calling.
· Click Settings > Voice Calls from the Google Voice desktop.
· Click Groups.
· Click Edit under the group you wish to change.
· Click Edit next to Ring Default phones to change which phones ring.
· Under “When people in this group go to voicemail,” you can keep the default Google greeting. To record your own, click Record New.
· Give your greeting a title when prompted.
· Tell Google which of your phones to call for you to record the greeting.
· Answer that phone and follow the prompts to record the greeting.
4. Record phone calls with Google Voice.
You can record calls you receive, but not ones you make. To record a Google Voice call, press 4 during the call. A voice will say, “This call is now being recorded.” When the call is over, you can listen to the recording on either the Google Voice desktop or from the Google Voice app. From the desktop, clicking the More link gives you the option of downloading, e-mailing, or embedding the conversation on a website.
5. Listen to your latest voicemail in Gmail.
Using a Google Lab plug-in, you can play a voicemail directly from the e-mail transcription copy of a Google Voice message.
- Send voicemail notifications to your e-mail address.
- Click Settings > Voice Settings from the Google Voice desktop.
- Click Voicemail & Text.
- Check “E-mail the message to:” box under Voicemail Notifications and add your Gmail account.
- Click Save Changes.
- Enable the Google Voice player in mail feature for your Gmail account by clicking Settings > Labs.
- Click Enable next to the Google Voice player.
- Click Save Changes.
- Now when you receive a voicemail notification in your Gmail account, you’ll be able to simultaneously read the transcription and listen to the message from the e-mail.
These are only my top five favorites; there are many more features available. Take a look and see how GVoice will work for you.
A Very Cool GVoice Tool
Ever needed to create a voice memo or reminder from your phone? The other day I was looking for an Android App that would allow me to do just that. I didn’t want to use the stock Voice Recorder as it saves the file as: .3gp, and I wanted something that would work with other players. After about 10 min of searching, I finally got smart!
Google Voice provides a great, free solution that enables you to leave voice messages for yourself (note to self), receive the transcription via email, along with the original audio file as well.
All it takes is a little bit of configuration.
I didn’t want all of my destination phones (work, home, etc) ringing when I called myself to leave a voice-memo. So, here’s how:
· In Google Voice:
- Settings-> Phones-> Edit Cell Phone-> Show Advanced Settings
- Voicemail access: No
- (click "Save")
· Settings->Voicemail & SMS
· Voicemail Greeting: Record New & called it "Note". Say something like "Leave a Note".
- Contacts->(my personal contact record – the one with my cell number associated)->Edit->Edit Google Voice Settings
- When this contact calls you:
- Select "Ring my" and UNCHECK all the sub-options
- "When this contact goes to voicemail", play the "Note" recording (create one). I used ‘Start Note’
- (click "Save")
Now, I can call my Google Voice number from my cell phone to leave myself a message (which is transcribed and emailed to me).
To take this one step further, I have set my notes to get posted to a private Posterous site. This required a little more configuration as you will need to add your Posterous email to Google Voice and this requires Verification.
In Posterous you will need to add 2 email addresses as contributors;
· account-verification-noreply@google.com – Email Account Verification
· voice-noreply@google.com – Voice notes from Google.
From here you should be able to call your GV number from your cell phone (this does not need to be a smart phone), you will be taken straight to voice mail. Leave your message or note, and your message will be transcribed and the audio message will be available on your Posterous site and available from any Internet ready device.
Happy Googling!
Note: This of course will work just as well if you are using an email client. I like the idea of my notes being available from all of my devices.
Categories: All Tags: account verification, Android App, free solution, google, Google Voice, Select Ring, Start Note, voice memo, voice number
Google Chrome Profiles
Google Profiles can be a real plus when using chrome. One of the things I missed most when I gave up Firefox for Chrome was some of the plug-ins that Firefox had. One of these provided the ability to have multiple Gmail credentials that I could hot swap back and forth from. Well no longer since I found: ChromeDeck.
To be fair, I found LifeHacker.com and they found ChromeDeck (Article). So why do I need this and what does it do? Having browser profiles is best described as a multi-user browser. I have more than one Gmail account primarily because I want more than one Google Voice Number. Switching back and forth always entailed logging out and logging back in which is a real pain when you want to check voicemail. Enter ChromeDeck:
ChromeDeck is a freeware and Windows-only tool, which simplifies the task of creating and managing separate user profiles for Google Chrome. You need Microsoft .NET Framework 4 to use it. After downloading and installing ChromeDeck, launch it to create and manage user profiles.
Chrome Deck will allow you to create and run multiple instances of Chrome with its own set of cookies, thereby allowing you to have more than one set of Google credentials. I not going to justify my need for more than one Google Voice number, but for those of you who have the same issue, this is a really nice solution. You can download ChromeDeck at:
Link: Download ChromeDeck
Happy Geeking
Categories: All, Google, Tips & Tricks Tags: browser profiles, Chrome Deck, Firefox, google, Google Chrome, Google Voice, Google Voice Number, plug ins, user profiles, voice number
My Perfect Mobile Device!
Perfect and Mobile is an Oxymoron!
First off as this is my rant, I want to define my frustration with mobile carriers:
- Early Termination Fees - Why does a company feel that they need to hold me hostage to make sure I stay a customer? Most companies do this with good products and customer service.
- Misleading Programs – The concept of unlimited data as long as you don’t go over a limit, somehow negates the term: Unlimited.
- Locked Down Devices – Devices that are restricted on what they can do, when the manufacturer has built these functionalities into the device.
I know I’m not alone in this, but these items are some of the reasons I am considering Cricket Mobile for my next venture into the mobile world. From my research, they have no contracts and when they say unlimited, there is no limits.
Read more…
Categories: All, Editorial Tags: degree rotation, e book reader, Gizmo5, Google Voice, mini laptop, Mobile, mobile carriers, My Perfect Mobile Device, Skype, voice over ip
Soocial.com – Sync Your Cloud Contacts
Syncing your contacts across cloud applications, such as Gmail, and mobile devices has been a long sought after function. For most of us it’s been a wonder why it hasn’t been included in the standard functionality considering that when it comes to Google its a shared commonality between Gmail and Google Voice.
Recently I came across Soocial.com which does exactly that. So what is Soocial, here is what LifeHacker has to say:
Web application Soocial promises hassle-free contact management, seamlessly syncing contacts between a handful of potential buckets including Gmail, Outlook, the OS X Address Book, Highrise, and over 400 phones (including your BlackBerry). To get started, just sign up with Soocial and start adding accounts and apps using their simple setup wizards. Some syncing will require you to download a utility (Outlook and Address Book, for example), while others simple require that you enter in a password (e.g., Gmail). The site is currently in beta, and though it’s gotten a lot of positive feedback from users, keep in mind that you could run into a bug or two. If you’re concerned with the privacy implications, Soocial makes it clear that if you decide to cancel your account, all of your data will be permanently deleted from their servers.
Sign Up At:
Categories: All, Tips & Tricks, WWW Tags: Address Book, google, Google Voice, leo laporte, paul thurrott, privacy implications, setup wizards, standard functionality
Handling Multiple Google Accounts
Anyone who has more than one G-Mail or Google Voice accounts has most likely discovered what a hassle it can be with logging out and logging back in to get to your information. It got to the point for me that I would run different browsers and have one account set up on Chrome and the other set up on Firefox. Of course now you need to remember which one is where.
Solution:
I was told about this add-on for FireFox that totally makes this a non-problem; CookieSwap! This extension allows you to create profiles and keep track of your various site cookies based on the selected profile. Its that simple. MozDev.org distributes this extension and describe it as:
CookieSwap is a Firefox/Mozilla extension that enables you to maintain numerous sets or “profiles” of cookies that you can quickly swap between while browsing.
I am very particular about what extensions get installed, but this is one that I am finding hard to live without.
Notice: This extension is in Beta and we make no warranty of any kind. It just works for us.
7YU5GF6ZAZ24
Categories: All, Google, Tips & Tricks Tags: Firefox, Firefox Mozilla, G-Mail, google, Google Voice, mail accounts, mozdev
1 Number To Rule Them All
Google Voice – One Killer Web App
Does Google have Skype on the menu? Voice Over IP (VoIP) is one of the hottest topics around. There has even been talk of late that the traditional P.O.T. network may be going to transition to VoIP in the future. I have written previously on this subject, but of late there has been some new additions to this service. Google Voice, or Grandcentral, it’s previous name is one of the most simple concepts when it comes to telephony. One Number for all of your other numbers.
The original concept of Grandcentral was to have one number that would ring all of your other numbers or certain numbers at a predetermined time. This in itself is a concept that is so simple it borders on brilliant. Read more…
Categories: All, Google, Tips & Tricks Tags: Gizmo5, google, Google Phone, Google Voice, open source project, Skype, voice over ip voip, voice transcription, voip market, voip service
iPod Touch= PDA, Game Box, or WiFi Phone
I just recently purchased my first Apple product; an iPod Touch 8G. This is not a review but more of a testamony on the platform and How To Use This As A WiFi Phone.
Let me be clear this is the new or 2nd Generation of the iPod Touch. This all started in a research project on how to stop paying my cell phone carrier the unbelivable prices that I pay them on a monthly basis.
Important: Prior to considering this option, it is imprortant for you to consider whether you require always on access to a cell phone. For me, I realized that I dont and that my job as a technology consultant keeps me on the road and their are ample public WiFi hotspots in my community. If you dont have access to public WiFi or you are in a rual area, this might not be a good option.
Categories: All, Articles, Mobile Tags: authenication, Blackberry Curve, Gizmo5, Google Voice, PDA, rual area, Skype, unbelivable prices, wifi hotspots
Cell Phone and Google
Cell Phone Tips and Google Voice.
Here are a few methods to maximize your cell phone minutes. They are not illegal just a little sneaky. I am currently working with Alltel and on a Blackberry Curve. Two of these methods require a smartphone and the third should work on any phone with Alltel My Circle.
My Circle is an alltel specific program that allows you to specifi a number and then any calls to or from that number will not count against your plan min.
Read more…
Categories: All, Android, Tips & Tricks Tags: Blackberry Curve, exchange number, google, Google Voice, ISKOOT, Skype
Dumping Your Email Client
Making your email client go away. As we move closer and closer to a real cloud computing world, getting rid of your email client becomes more of a viable solution.
Up until recently I have been a long time Microsoft Outlook user. I have also tried just about every email client known to techkind. One of the biggest issues I always had was keeping my laptop email sycned to my desktop email and both of them synced to my Blackberry.
After much research I finally made the move to Gmail.
Categories: All, Articles, Software Tags: due dilligence, email, email client, gmail, google, Google Voice, microsoft, Microsoft Outlook, microsoft outlook user
