Google Voice Review: Now Open Signup, No Invite Required

Google Voice Logo

Google Voice is now open for signup. You don’t need an invite. You might be wondering if getting a free Google Voice account is something you should bother with. I think you should. I’ve been test running Google Voice for a few months now. Like a lot of the Google products it is fantastic in some ways and limited in others.

I currently utilize it in the following manner:

Calls to our main office line are forwarded when no answer/busy, or out of office, to a (non-Google) hosted voicemail service that provides call options to reach Sylvia or me. (i.e. press 1 for Steve, 2 for Sylvia)

If the caller selects me, that call is forwarded to Google Voice which in turn rings my cell phone if the call is during a time for which I have it set to foward, which is pretty much all day every day until nighttime. If I don’t answer, Google Voice, takes the message, transcribes it into text, and emails it to me.

From my Gmail account, either at my desk or on iPhone, I see the voice message alongside my email messages. I can either click to listen, or just read the text. Sometimes the text is a perfect transcription, sometimes it’s a garbled mess, depending of course on how well the caller speaks and enunciates. Usually, it’s a mix but readable.

Below is a sample message which is typical, though slightly altered. I changed the phone number and the message slightly.

Voicemail from:  (512) 555-1212 at 11:19 AM
Google Voice
Hi Steve, this is Sandra Bullock. I’d be Roger’s I spoke to Brian about co-staring with you in my next movie. He said that we can meet tomorrow. Give mea call and just confirm that you got this message. Thank you.
Play message

Read more