Today while writing, ironically enough, an article about Google’s Apps (including Gmail) finally losing the beta tag (a very monumental step for Google and its users, I’ll have you know– that beta tag has been on Gmail for the past five years), an email appeared in my inbox saying that I had recieved an invitation to Google Voice. Upon reading about it, I was ecstatic and hoped to high heaven that it wasn’t a late April Fool’s joke:
You are invited to open a free Google Voice account. To accept this invitation and create your account, visit: [link]
If you haven’t already heard about it, Google Voice is a service that makes using your current phones much better!
Here’s what it offers:
- A personal phone number that rings all of your existing phones when people call
- All of your voicemail in one inbox with unlimited online storage and free voicemail transcripts sent to your phone and email
- Low-priced international calling to over 200 countries and free SMS
- Other powerful features like the first phone spam filter to protect you from unwanted callers, the ability to ListenInTM on your voicemail messages while they are being left, conference calling and more
It’s currently only available in the US, but the features on this service are phenominal. I’ve texted several people already, I can make calls, I can receive calls and have them forwarded to several phone numbers, and I can recieve voice mail. It also transcribes voice mail into readable text. All of this is for free; the only part of the service that costs money are international calls or changing your number. When I lost the ability a week or so ago to text using Gmail’s chat, I was nearly outraged, but then I knew that Google would take care of me. Sure enough, I can now send texts for free again. It had nothing to do with me losing text in Gmail chat; the invitation actually came because I signed up to get one and had completely forgotten about it.
As it turns out, the number I selected, despite being in an 801 area code, has to have a “1″ dialed before it meaning that it’s long distance from West Jordan. Since I don’t want anyone who may contact me to call long distance, I’m working on changing that number. Once I change it, I shall share it with many people and revel in the fact that I can block those I don’t want to talk to and record special messages for each individual if I choose. Mua ha ha ha ha!
To read more about Google Voice and to petition for an invitation, click here.
There is obviously a lot to know about this. I think you made some good points in Features also.