Google Voice

App Review:	Google Voice
Price:	FREE
Developer:	Google
Reviewer:	brian
Brian’s Rating:	4.5
User Rating:	4.2

Pros / Cons

Pros:

It’s part of Googledom

One Phone…Two Numbers!

Free Calls and Texts

Call Recording

Cons:

Slight Voice Delay

No MMS Support

Lack of Froyo Voicedial support

Call Recording on inbound calls only

Review

At this point there have been quite a few write-ups and reviews on Google Voice so you probably already know most of the details.  So,  instead of doing a full blown review, I’m going to do a quick run through of the features and highlights and then describe how I’ve been using Google Voice for the past few months.

So, what exactly do you get with Google Voice?  That’s a tough question to answer as GV can be many different things, depending on what you’re looking for.  Here are a few of the basics:

• When you sign up you are assigned a GV phone number.
• You can send and receive text messages to/from this number from the GV website.
• You can set things up so that when someone calls that number it rings to your cell, and/or, home phone, work phone, car phone, space capsule phone…whatever.  You can transfer the call in between all of your phones easy enough, so if you’re on your home phone and need to leave the house you just switch it to your cell (and put on your bluetooth headset when you get into your car, right?…right???)
• You can have Google Voice be in charge of your voicemail which means that when someone leaves you a voicemail you can have it emailed or texted to you, or you can view a transcribed version and listen to it on the site.
• On inbound calls you can dial “4″ and record the call.  It makes a little announcement, so this definitely isn’t covert, but it comes in handy…I used it for a phone interview recently.

All of this you get regardless of what phone you have, but things get more exciting when you own an Android phone…and this is where I start relaying my personal Google Voice experience.  At the beginning of the year I owned an AT&T Fuze, as my personal phone, and a Sprint Touch Pro 2 for work.  I had a Google Voice account but really didn’t use it…just didn’t have a need for it.  I really just needed to have two separate numbers.  In March my employer decided to stop providing phones for employees and I used the opportunity to consolidate.  I bought a Droid, got my old personal number ported over from AT&T, installed the Google Voice Android app, set up GV to ring to my Droid, sent out my GV number to my colleagues, ended up with two numbers on one phone, and called it a day.  But that’s not what’s so cool about this…

I got the minimum minutes plan that would still allow me to have the Verizon Friends and Family feature and then added the inbound and outbound Google Voice numbers (inbound and outbound GV calls are routed through the same two numbers for each call*) as Family and successfully got all of my work minutes free.  So, now all of my calling and texting for work is free.  Pretty cool.  Hopefully I didn’t make this too complicated…let me know in the comments if I need to expound upon anything.

*I’ve read that the GV proxy numbers change periodically so I may need to keep an eye on things and change my Friends and Family numbers on occasion.  Oh, and even though the call is routed through a different number, my number is still what shows up on the other caller’s phone, so there’s no confusion.

Summary

The benefits are all pretty obvious.  The two real negatives are the slight lag in calls…sometimes it’s a bit awkward.  I’m OK with it, though, and have just learned to expect and anticipate it.  Hasn’t ever been a really big problem.  The other bummer is that you can’t send or receive MMS using the GV number…and, if someone does send you an MMS it just fails and neither sender or receiver get any notification that it didn’t go through.  Lastly, I’m not a fan of having an extra, manual step in between me and my voice dial.  When I use the bluetooth voice dial that comes with Froyo I now have to look down and select whether or not to use Google Voice for my outbound call.  All that aside, I am a HUGE Google Voice fan.  It’s been a life saver for me…the ability to have two numbers ring to and from the same phone without buying an obscure phone with two SIM cards has been great.  What do you all think?  Anything I’m missing here?

To get started with Google Voice and sign up for your number, click here. Also check out the Google Voice Android App!