TechnologyCrowd

Last week I finally received my Google Voice invite that I applied for a few months ago.  I was excited about all of the benefits, but I did not want to change my number and they do not offer port forwarding at this time.  I had to change my number a few months back when I added my BlackBerry to my plan and did not want to have to tell all my contacts that the number was changing again. The feature that I was really looking forward to is the voicemail transcript feature.

The Google Voice website indicates that they are planning on adding number porting in the future, but they have said that since I first started looking at the site months ago, so I needed another solution.

I have been using YouMail for my visual voicemail program for some time so I knew that there was an option to send my calls to another place for voicemail.  If you have not yet received an invite for Google Voice, I highly recommend YouMail for its flexibility and range of greetings that you can use and specify for different callers or groups.  The drawback in my mind is that you have to pay extra for voicemail transcription.

The solution for using Google Voice for voicemail without having to give out a new number to all my contacts is to forward unanswered calls to the Google Voice number.  I located the steps on the Verizon site for my phone, and found some other helpful information on the Google Voice forums.  If you are not using Verizon, check your carrier’s website for information on unanswered/busy call forwarding to make sure there are not charges.  Note, that you cannot use standard call forwarding or your phone will never ring because it creates a loop within the system.

Here are the steps I did with my Verizon BlackBerry Storm that should work for any phones on the Verizon network.

1. Open up phone application
2. Press *71 followed by you Google Voice number (i.e. 555-555-1234)
3. Press Send
4. Wait for confirmation tone, Press End

Note:  If you ever decide to cancel the feature, press *73, send, wait for confirmation tone to disable.

Although the process works at this point, you end up with too many rings since it will ring your initial phone four or five times and then ring another four or five times after transferring to Google Voice.  In order to make Google Voice go straight to voicemail you need to go into the Google Voice website.

1. Look for contacts on the left
2. Find the contact that lists your number being transferred (if you don’ have a contact for your own number, create one)
3. Click on “edit Google Voice settings”
4. Under “When this contact calls you” select Send to Voicemail

At this point your calls will be sent to Google Voice for voicemail.  Depending on your settings you will receive an e-mail or text message indicating that you have a voicemail.  I can verify that the e-mails are fully described with transcription, I do not use the text message feature.

I also recommend obtaining the mobile access application, there are versions for Android and BlackBerry as well as instructions for navigating with a mobile browser on the website.  You can leave the standard system greeting or setup your own personal greetings, as well as specifying different greetings for people and groups.

Although I am still missing out on some of the functionality that Google Voice offers, my main interest is the voicemail and transcription feature so I am happy with this and will look forward to porting my number when available to take advantage of all of the other features.