The Internet search giant is expanding its voice application — which lets you use one Google-supplied phone number to manage calls on several phones — to work with your existing cellphone number.
After directing your Google Voice account to pick up voice mails, rather than relying on your cellphone provider, Google will transcribe your messages and send an e-mail notification after new messages are recorded.
Google Voice, available since March, was created to tie all of a subscriber’s phone numbers — home, work, cellphone, etc. — into one new Google Voice number.
“There’s always going to be a subset of people who don’t want to change their phone number,” says Google senior product manager Vincent Paquet.
Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research, says that without the obstacle of changing phone numbers, more folks will give Voice a try. Still, he says, “They won’t get the full benefit of the service, which is tying all your phones into one. All they’re doing is replacing one voice mail provider with another.”
To tie your cellphone to Google Voice:
Go to the settings tab at voice.google.com and change it to pair your cellphone voice mail with Voice. A code will be given to type into your phone to do this.
Voice, like Gmail when it was first launched, for now is only available on an “invitation” basis, by registering a request at voice.google.com. Paquet wouldn’t reveal any data about Google Voice’s usage except to say that “millions” of invitations have been sent out.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-10-26-message-cellphone-google_N.htm
Tags: google, phones, voice mail
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