Why I love Google Voice
I’ve been raving about Google Voice to whomever will listen. Its time I put into writing why I think its so great. Before I go there, let me address the #1 concern people have when they hear about the service: “Do I have to change my number?” The answer is no. Google Voice is essentially a fancy forwarding service, with a few cool features added on top. You’ll get a new number, but your old one won’t go away. People who saved it will still be able to reach you. Your new number comes with substantial benefits, which I’ll get into next. These benefits will encourage you to use your “new” number for outgoing calls and texts. At first, your friends will be getting calls from an unexpected number. If you sign your texts (ie, “Where are we meeting? -Bo”) and encourage your friends to save the number, they will eventually store it alongside your other one. So what are these benefits that’ll motivate you to use your Google Voice number? Here are my favorite:
- Free outgoing texts to anywhere in the world when sent from a Google Voice app on your phone or computer.
- Free incoming texts from anywhere in the world. If you have them forwarded to your phone, then your carrier will still charge you. But why do that when you can check for new texts over the internet using your data connection? Incoming and outgoing texts are basically free if you have a data connection.
- Text from any internet connected computer. Its a pain to send texts from a tiny phone keypad. With Google Voice, you can send a text to any phone from any internet enabled computer — including the you work at for 8 hours per day with an easier keyboard. You don’t need to look up a special email address. The text will come from your Google Voice number. When the person calls back, it’ll ring your phone. If he/she texts back, it’ll come to your number.
- It knows your phone numbers already While you’re texting/calling from the browser version of Google Voice, you don’t need to type in the digits of your buddy — just start typing his/her name and it’ll figure it out using your Google Contacts list. If your Google Contacts are empty, use this application to import your iPhone contacts. Use this application to import your Blackberry contacts. Click here to figure out contact sync options for other phones.
