After being silent from a quite a long time now, Google Voice opens to all, where any one can access it without waiting for any invitees. But it’s operations are currently only possible in US. Disappointing i guess, what about millions residing outside US. Well we hope to see it expanding soon now.
From the press release they say
A little over a year ago, we released an early preview of Google Voice, our web-based platform for managing your communications. We introduced one number to ring all your phones, voicemail that works like email, free calls and text messages to the U.S. and Canada, low-priced international calls and more—the only catch was you had to request and receive an invite to try it out. Today, after lots of testing and tweaking, we’re excited to open up Google Voice to the public, no invitation required.
Over the past year, we’ve introduced a mobile web app, an integrated voicemail player in Gmail, the ability to use Google Voice with your existing number and more.
Features available on Google voice
- Users can register phone numbers in practically any area code they want, choosing local or faraway destinations
- Google Voice also offers call forwarding. Forward calls to as many or as few numbers as you like, and you can even forward them to different phones based on who’s calling.
- It also provides the ability to screen callers—you can either have the calls sent directly to your phone with no filtering, or you can have Google ask them to say their name first. The service will ring you, tell you who’s calling, and give you the option to take the call or send them to voicemail. Interesting right!
- With Google Voice, you can also make free calls to any US number. These will appear to originate from your Google number even when you’re calling from your cell or your home line—the receiver’s caller ID will show your Google number (therefore not giving away your other numbers).
- Google Voice’s voicemail is that the service automatically transcribes the voice messages left by callers and then sends the transcription to you through a variety of mediums such as text messages, or email, whatever you like to keep a record for future.
- When people SMS your Google Voice number, the message will go directly to one or more (however many you have set up) mobile phones. You can respond to those SMSs directly from the phone, and that response will appear to come from your Google Voice number. The cool part, though, is that you can also send and receive SMSs right from the Google Voice Web interface. You don’t need to take out your phone all the time.
If you like this and want some other useful features, try Google voice if you are a US resident and let us know what you think about it.
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Article by Sarah
She works as a senior business development executive for a software company. Her expertise are in content writing, SEO, online marketing and business development. Interests include mobiles, web 2.0 and lifestyles.