Google releases so many products — most of them free — that it’s easy to overlook one that’s really special. Google Voice qualifies.
Thanks to its features and competitive potential, Google’s relatively new service has been quietly sending tremors throughout the telephony industry.
And Google Voice — a service that’s like a supercharged telephone number that you can use from your cell phone, smartphone, or from Gmail — is gaining traction, offering features that are either unavailable with other phone numbers or available only at a fee.
There is, though, a bit of bad news — at least for some. Currently, Google Voice is only available in the United States.
However, the Internet is full of workarounds for international users who sign up for the service via virtual private networks (VPN). And once a number is procured, the service can be used freely.
Moreover, Google plans to roll out Voice internationally. The only question is when.
But whether you get Google Voice now or in the near future, it’s likely to make you rethink your current phone setup — or, at the least, to provide you with some attractive, free options for enhancing how you use your existing lines. So what can the telephony product do for you?
Aggregate Phone Numbers
Anyone who juggles multiple phone lines and hates missing calls will love Google Voice. Once you have a Google Voice phone number, you can set it up so that any calls you receive on the service will automatically ring all of your other telephones, acting as a real- time call-forwarding system. If there’s a telephone nearby, you’ll get the call.
Intelligent Voicemail
Google Voice takes voicemail to a new level, thanks to a number of features that will be a boon to those frequently playing voicemail phone-tag.
One feature allows you to set up personalized greetings for particular callers or…