Source: googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com

Military families face dozens of challenges every day. The life of a military spouse and a military family is never easy. It’s a life of sacrifice and patience, but it’s also one of pride and patriotism.

To help families better stay in touch with their loved ones, this Veterans Day we’re partnering with Blue Star Families to give priority Google Voice invitations to the families of U.S. service members involved in the organization. Blue Star Families is a group of military spouses from all over the country who work hard to educate civilian communities and leaders about the hardships faced by military families.

Military families encounter unique challenges and frequent separations, so staying in touch is vitally important. With one Google Voice number, families won’t have to worry about missing calls from service members abroad.

Google Voice can make communication one less worry for these families, and hopefully bring them a little bit closer to their loved ones.

Posted by Jason Toff, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Source: googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com

Google Voice is all about enabling choice: which phone you pick up your calls on, where to review your voicemail messages, how to send and reply to text messages, etc.  So when it comes to your phone number, it was logical for us to also offer a choice of which number to use with Google Voice.

Previously, when you created a Google Voice account, we asked you to select a new Google phone number. This allowed us to offer features like call forwarding, screening, and recording.  But we know not everyone wants to start using a new phone number, so we’ve been working on another option for people who are willing to trade some features for the ability to keep their existing number.

We’re excited to announce that you now can get Google Voice with a Google number OR with your existing mobile phone number. If you choose to use Google Voice with your existing number, you won’t get some features (like call screening and recording), but you’ll still get many others — including Google voicemail:

More specifically, if you sign up for Google Voice with your existing number, you’ll get:

• Online, searchable voicemail
• Free automated voicemail transcription
• Custom voicemail greetings for different callers
• Email and SMS notifications
• Low-priced international calling

If you decide to also get a new Google number, you’ll get all of the above PLUS:

• One number that reaches you on all your phones
• SMS via email
• Call screening
• Listen In
• Call recording
• Conference calling
• Call blocking

If you already have a Google number, this new feature should also help with the transition to your new number, as you can now forward unanswered calls to your mobile phone to your Google Voice account.  This way, people who still call your old number will reach the same voicemail as people who call your Google Voice number.

If you already use Google Voice, you can add Google voicemail to any mobile phone you’ve linked to your account.  If you’re not using Google Voice yet, you can request an invitation or ask someone with a Google Voice account to invite you.  When you receive the invitation to sign-up, you decide whether you’d like to use Google Voice with your existing number or get a Google number.

Posted by Pierre Lebeau, Product Manager

Source: googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com

Voicemail transcription is, in my opinion, one of Google Voice’s coolest features.  That’s why I’ve saved it for my last Google Voice tip.  When someone leaves you a voicemail, Google Voice transcribes the message and gives you a variety of ways to access it.  The transcription process is fully automated, so sometimes the text isn’t perfect, but it’s usually enough to give you the basic idea of the message.

If you’re a Gmail user, you can enable a voicemail player to show up underneath each voicemail notification you receive in Gmail by turning on the Google Voice player in mail lab. You can also set up your Google Voice account to send SMS notifications of the transcriptions to your mobile phone.

You might notice that some of the words in transcriptions are grayed out. This is an indication that we’re not as confident about these particular words.

Heather and I hope that these "newbie" posts have helped some of you get your feet wet with Google Voice.  Even though this is the last in our series, that doesn’t mean you can’t continue to share feature suggestions and interesting use cases.  Share your Voice insights in the Google Voice Help Forum, and remember, the Google Voice Help Center is packed with useful information.  Happy calling!

Posted by Carol and Heather, Googlers

Source: googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com

There were some conflicting reports yesterday about Google Voice voicemails being searchable online, so we wanted to clarify how Google Voice works.

Google Voice lets you access your voicemails online from your inbox. Your account is password-protected, like any other Google service, and its content cannot be read by anyone unless you choose to share the information in your account.

Google Voice can also send you an email notification when you have a new voicemail. The link points to a web page that displays only that particular message. The web address for that unique message is virtually impossible to guess.

However, if a user copied that unique URL from their email notification, and published it on a public website, then typical search engines, including Google, could have indexed it. Very few people chose to do this: of the millions of voicemail messages left on Google Voice, only 31 messages were made publicly searchable by users.

Nonetheless, three weeks ago, we decided that even if a user chose to include this unique URL in a public website, it would remain unsearchable. Since we implemented that change, no new messages have been indexed.

If you want to publicize a Google Voice message on your website, we provide a special embed code for this purpose. Visitors will then be able to listen to that particular message, but the message itself will remain unsearchable.

Posted by Vincent Paquet, Sr. Product Manager

Source: googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

Since the debut of Google Voice, our early users have shared lots of feedback that has led to some exciting new features, like the ability to receive SMS messages via email and the option to change your Google Voice number. But one of the most frequent requests we’ve received is for the ability to share Google Voice with friends and family.

Starting today, we’re beginning to give out invitations to Google Voice users.  If you currently use Google Voice, over the next few weeks, you’ll see an "Invite a friend" link appear on the left-hand side of your inbox.

We’ll be rolling out these invitations gradually, so don’t worry if you don’t see your invitations immediately. We’re initially giving out three invites to each account, but we’re planning to provide more invitations in the future.

If you don’t have an account yet, you can request a Google Voice invitation at google.com/voiceinvite.

Posted by Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet, Product Managers, Google Voice

Source: googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com

When we launched Google Voice, we offered free calling to the continental US. We’ve just expanded this to all 50 states by adding free calling to Alaska and Hawaii.

You can initiate free calls to Alaska and Hawaii from your inbox online, from our mobile apps, or by dialing your own Google Voice number from one of your phones and selecting option 2 to place a call. You can also forward calls to your Google Voice number to Alaskan or Hawaiian phones for free.

Please note that Google Voice is only available in the US, and you’ll need a working US phone to setup a Google Voice account.

Posted by Vincent Paquet

Source: googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com

This week, I’d like to talk about a Google Voice feature some of you may not have heard about: custom greetings. With custom greetings, you’re able to record personalized voicemail greetings that only play to a specific group of people or to an individual. This feature is completely optional, but once you use it, you may realize how helpful and fun it can be.

Instructions for creating a basic custom greeting can be found in the Google Voice Help Center, along with tips for recording custom greetings for "different groups or individuals in your contact list.".

I’ll give you examples of how I’m using custom greetings, but these are just a few ideas — perhaps you’ll be able to think of other creative ways to take advantage of custom greetings.

General default: "Hi, I can’t get to the phone right now, so please leave your name and a message. If you don’t leave a message, I probably won’t return your call. Thanks."

Friends: "I might be in, I might be out. Leave a message and you might find out!

Grandparents-who-only-speak-Chinese: "爺爺奶奶你們好。對不起我現在不能接電話。請給我留言，我等會兒給你們打回來。謝謝！"

I can also imagine custom greetings being incredibly useful if you own a business. You can have a "professional" greeting associated to your business contacts and perhaps some important business partners would even have a custom greeting that includes emergency contact information.

Now that you have a bit more insight on custom greetings, be creative and record yours today. If you encounter any issues, search first to see if another user reported it in the Google Voice Help Forum; if you don’t see the issue, ask users for help in the Problem Solving section of the forum.

If there are other features you’d like to see in Google Voice, please leave your suggestion on the Google Voice Suggestions page.

Posted by Carol and Heather
Googlers

Source: googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com

I spend a lot of time in Gmail and love how Google Voice email notifications let me see voicemails in my email inbox. I can scan the transcript quickly, and when I want to hear the voicemail, it is just a click away on my computer.

However, something always seemed a little off when I clicked "Play message" and it opened up a new browser window. Wouldn’t it be better if the voicemail just played in the email? Now that is possible in Gmail. You have to turn on the Google Voice player in the Gmail Labs tab under Settings, but after that you are good to go. When voicemails come in, click on the play button, and you can listen to the whole message, adjust volume and everything right inside the Gmail message. To read more check out the post on the Gmail blog.

We hope you like this new feature. Let us know what you think by leaving a comment in our forum.

Posted by Robert Dong,
Software Engineer

Source: googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com

With Google Voice, you receive SMS messages on your phones AND in your Google Voice inbox, which means you can send SMS replies from either from your mobile phone or your computer. Today, we’re going one step further by allowing you to get text messages by email. After enabling SMS-to-email forwarding, every time you receive a new SMS on your Google Voice number, we will send you an email notification. Some of the benefits of this new feature include:

• Unified messaging – You can get SMS together with email and voicemail notifications, all in one place in your email inbox, where you can easily search and reply to these messages.
• SMS savings – If you spend your time in front of your computer, or if you get email on your mobile phone, you can turn off SMS notification to your phone in Google Voice and receive and reply to your SMS by email, saving on SMS costs.
• SMS threading – If you use Gmail, you also get the extra benefit of threading all SMS between you and one contact into one conversation, so it is easy to see the whole discussion.

This feature can be easily turned on or off from the call settings page:

As always feedback is welcomed and we hope you like this feature.

Posted by Vincent Paquet

Source: googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com

A few days ago, I decided to spend some quality time poking around the Google Voice Settings page. I’m glad I did, because I found a Voice feature I never knew existed! It’s the "ring schedule" feature. I’d never thought about setting up a preset schedule for phone calls and was pleasantly surprised to find out this was actually a popular requested feature by users.

This help center article describes how to set up your ring schedule. So then the question is: why would you want to do this?

There are many possible reasons, but two examples came to my mind immediately. Say you have unreliable cell phone reception at home, and you want to be able to take your calls from your home phone on evenings and weekends. However, you don’t want the home line to ring and bother your roommate during work hours when you’re not there. You can do this. Or if you don’t want any calls interrupting your dinner from 6pm-7:30pm every night, go ahead and set your ring schedule so calls to your Google number never ring your phones during dinner time. During those hours, callers will be able to leave you voicemail so you can catch up after you’re done eating.

Whether you’re new to Voice or didn’t know this feature existed, give it a try! If you have questions about this or any other features, visit the Google Voice Help Forum. We also welcome stories and comments regarding interesting ways you’re using Voice. Share these in the "Tips and Tricks" category of the Google Voice Help Forum.

Posted by Carol and Heather
Googlers

Source: googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com

In our last post, Heather learned how to make calls through the Google Voice homepage. Today, I want to explore why someone would link multiple phones to their Google Voice number.

After choosing your Google Voice number, you’re asked to add at least one forwarding phone that will ring when people call your Google number. Heather chose to link her cell phone to her Voice number. The Getting Started Guide shows how you can sync multiple phones to your Voice number. When I read this, a question immediately popped up in my mind – why would I want to do this?

Once you link your cell phone, home phone, and perhaps your work phone, you’ll be able to control which devices ring based on who is calling your Google number. You can assign certain callers to ring your cell or your work phone (or both), and can forward some calls straight to voicemail or directly to the spam folder. I can see it now: family members ring my cell and home phone. Friend who only calls when she wants to gossip? Sorry – straight to voicemail without ringing.

By linking multiple phones to your Voice number, you’ll also be able to switch phones mid-conversation. For example, my sister calls my Voice number and I pick up my work phone to speak to her. I chat with her for a few minutes, and then I realize its time to go home. Instead of telling my sister I’m going to hang up and call her again on my cell phone, I simply press the * on my work phone, and my other linked phones will ring. I pick up my cell phone, hang up my work phone, and continue chatting with my sister on my cell. Seamless!

To read more about this feature and how to set up your phones, please go to the help articles Features: Switching phones during an incoming call and Signing up: Setting which phones will ring. For more cool Voice features, visit the About Google Voice page. And of course, if you encounter any issues, check out the Getting Started section of the Help Forum for solutions.

Posted by Carol and Heather
Googlers

Source: googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com

In addition to making free long distance calls within the continental US, you can now call Canada for free through Google Voice. We offered this feature in GrandCentral previously, and in an effort to provide as many useful features as we can for free, we’re happy to bring those free calls to Canada to Google Voice users as well.

You can initiate calls from your inbox online, from our new mobile apps, or by dialing your own Google Voice number from one of your phones and selecting option 2 to place a call.

Please note that Google Voice is only available in the US, and you’ll need a working US phone to setup a Google Voice account.

Posted by Brian Peterson
Software Engineer