Google's official Google Voice app now available for the iPhone (1 Viewer)

[KeithAP]

This is new isn't it?


http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-voice/id318698524?mt=8


Apparently it doesn't work on other iOS devices. I tried it tonight and the voice quality was a little garbled but usable. Definitely not as good as GV on my MacBook Pro.


-Keith

 

[Sam Posten]

It's not VOIP, it's using your regular phone and minutes. So blame AT&T.

 

[DaveF]

Do I want GoogleVoice?


I have my cell #. My work # is solely for the office; never use it for personal calls and never hear from it outside the office. Does GoogleVoice help me? I don't understand what it is and why people use it.

 

[Sam Posten]

I'd use it more on a pc as VoIP than what it does on a phone

 

[KeithAP]

Originally Posted by DaveF

Do I want GoogleVoice?


I have my cell #. My work # is solely for the office; never use it for personal calls and never hear from it outside the office. Does GoogleVoice help me? I don't understand what it is and why people use it.

Hard to say. With GV you will get a GV phone number that anyone can call. You can register both your current numbers to your GV number and then when someone calls your GV number, all the registered numbers will ring. The first phone you pick up is where the call ends up going to.


This can come in handy in a variety of situations. For example, I was house/dog sitting for a friend in another state for 3 weeks. I was able to add their phone to my GV number so I can use their landline instead of my cell phone. It is all the same to the caller, they have no idea what phone I am using to talk on when they call the GV number.


You can also place a call through GV so your caller ID shows as your GV number.


There are other things such as free text messaging, custom voicemail messages for any number, voicemail messages sent to your email address, etc.


It is free. You might want to sign up and try it out.


-KeithP

 

[DaveF]

I had read something somewhere about a phone # being forever locked to Google Voice. I didn't understand it but it sounded scary, so I've never signed up. So if I sign up , it doesn't do anything to my regular phone #? It doesn't like I have the problem it solves, but if signing up is risk free i can check it out n

 

[KeithAP]

Phone numbers can be added or removed from your GV call list at will. There shouldn't be any problem in that regard.


I signed up for GV because I don't have a land line. I use my cell phone most of the time but then I got a MagicJack to reduce my cell phone minutes usage. Before GV, if someone called me on my cell, I would either have to pick up and tell them to call me on the MagicJack or let the cell ring and call them back on my MagicJack. With GV, both phones would ring and I just pick up whichever is convenient and the callers never have to guess which number to call.


One number to ring them all.


On a side note, for various reasons I no longer use a MagicJack. There are some problems with how it handles its own voicemail system, I wanted to turn it off it and doesn't let you do that. Also, if the MagicJack software isn't running on your computer, calls immediately go into voicemail. This was causing problems for how I was using GV.


-KeithP

 

[DaveF]

Got it, thanks. I have just a cell phone, no landline, and use the cell phone for all personal calls. (Since most calls are in-network and I don't make many personal calls, we've not had a cost problem to add us to a VOIP solution and confuse the phone #'s.)