@warrenveach Love Google Voice. Been using it for my business for two years. Love the unlimited space, getting your own number to match your name or preferred sequence of numbers, love that I can email and save the voicemails for future reference, love the call widget I installed on my website.

@warrenveach And, I love that you can forward voicemails to anyone and they don’t have to have Google Voice installed to hear the messages. As you can see, I love it.

@kc_kreative

As a test, last month I set aside my cell and used GV exclusively.

I routed all my texts and calls though it, and the only time I had an issue was when I was at a remote location (Starbucks) and was using it through their WiFi connection.

There was a bit of a delay, but that had more to do with the connection rather than GV itself.

This is a great thread.  I’ve been wondering about Google Voice and this gives me great data to go on.  Thanks everyone!

@kc_kreative

Yes, you can use a “standard” greeting, or you can customize the greeting just like you would on your cell/home phone.

When you miss a call, or someone leaves a message, you are automatically notified by email in your Gmail account.

Texts work just like usual, and you can use your keyboard instead of try to type on the phone. For someone like me with FFS (Fat Finger Syndrome), that’s great!

@kc_kreative

What I think is fun, is when Google transcribes the message into text. Its hilarious to read the transcript, then listen to the message to hear the actual message.

Its not an exact science, but the transcripts are close enough to get the jest of the conversation.

@warrenveach

Compared to you I’m barely scratching the surface!

However, here’s how I use it:

Only I call it. Whenever I have a “brilliant” idea I call GV and leave myself a message. Whenever I get back to email it’s waiting there for me, completely transcribed.

Brilliant.

I only wish they had numbers in the 207 area code (Maine’s ONLY area code.) Then I’d use it as my regular number.

No, stop the insanity!!! I can’t have another “toy” to play with! Love, love love the idea of being able to call myself with ideas and have it transcribed. Dragon dictate leaves funny transcriptions,too but it is way too slow. I will try this, though. Let me just add 3 hours to the day.@warrenveach @rich-brooks

I really haven’t used it for business.. thanks for the insights guy.Since I have two sons in the military it’s a great way to call and the prices are relatively inexpensive.

@deairby …I understand the time issue, but can a person ever have too many toys??

@robpeck ….Another great idea! I don’t go abroad often at all, but having a US phone # is just another great way to utilize GV.

@localbusinessco ….It’s good to have a way to stay in touch. Thanks to your sons for their service.

@trudy I can’t underscore enough how much of a lifesaver this is. I’m in India for the foreseeable future, clients are muuuch more comfortable knowing they can call me on the same ol’ US number. 

As an aside, it is crazy how many more hoops foreign users must go through when signing up for Google services. So many more hoops to jump through. 

Thanks for the discussion on GV. Haven’t tried it but was having a discussion with a client this evening about using it.

@designbykiltz

I do want to say that it doesn’t completely replace the cell phone, but it is an option to use when you are on a computer or in one spot.

The disadvantage is that with the headset/mic, you are pretty much stuck where you are until the conversation is finished.

I definitely use GV more for inbound calls forwarded to my cell rather then outbound calls.