August 13th, 2009 | |
Posted in Google
I was lucky enough to receive an invite to the initial release of Google Voice. Honestly, I was a bit apprehensive to start using the service at first, because Google already stores all of my email and IM conversations. Allowing them to store my voicemails, SMS and recorded calls pretty much surrenders the last of my personal and business life to Google.
I wanted to share my experience with a hands on review of the basic features of the product (which is till having a few kinks ironed out).
Registering a Phone Number With Google Voice:
I live in the Raleigh, Durham, Cary area of North Carolina but was only able to claim a number that was attributed to outskirt cities such as Sandford, Knightdale, Franklinton and similar. I am not sure if this is because there were no numbers available or if it’s because Google Voice only provides numbers for cities that are not densely populated.
The Google Voice Interface:
If you use Gmail, the Google Voice interface should be relatively straightforward. Accessing your stored messages, recordings and SMS is on the left- similar to your email inbox and labels in Gmail.
Placing a Call With Google Voice:
I was most interested in this feature because of the low long distance rates Google Voice provides. However, as you can see from this screenshot, I was unable to place a call during my initial testing:
More to come on this feature when it is more stable.
Viewing voicemail with Google Voice:
I left myself a voicemail to test the recording and transcribing capabilities of the system. After recording a voicemail, a playable audio file showed up in my Google Voice inbox almost instantly. The transcribed version was viewable shortly after. The transcribed version was also sent to me via SMS.
I recorded the following message:
“Hey, this is Jason, just testing the transcription capabilities of Google Voice. This is just simply a test to see how well it transcribes. Thank you.”
As you can see from the output below, Google Voice has a little work to do in the transcribing department:
SMS with Google Voice:
Sending SMS messages with Google voice is a snap and the system delivers messages promptly. It could be especially handy when you need to respond to a SMS while working at your PC. SMS messages appear in the same right panel as voicemails.
Recording Phone Calls With Google Voice:
This is by far my favorite feature. In my line of work, a verbal agreement can have a big impact. With Google Voice, I just need to press 4 and the conversation is recorded for future reference. It can also be useful for recording conference calls if you need to take notes on it at a later date.
Overall, I think Google Voice will be a cost effective and useful alternative once all of the bugs are ironed out. It will be interesting to see it’s commercial acceptance in the coming years as well. I would also expect adsense to make it’s way into your inbox – perhaps matched contextually based on your transcribed voicemails.
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