We love being connected. People have always tried to find new and better ways to communicate. To do this, sometimes, we have to use multiple communication devices to do so. This is a big hassle and could most of the time be confusing. But what if you had something wherein you can organize and manage all your communication records, devices and contacts by using just one simple application? Wouldn’t it be easier? Well, Google has the right solution for you. It’s called Google Voice. Google Voice is an awesome, FREE service to help manage phone and contacts the same way gmail helps you manage your email.

Google Voice is a great new telecommunications service from Google. It is not a phone redirecting service. It’s not VoIP or Voicemail. It is a combination of all of the above and more. Google voice allows users to register a new phone number and direct it to call multiple phones. It could also collect messages and act as your personal switchboard operator and it also tracks, records and transcribes communication for easy recording and safekeeping on the cloud.

It is currently one of the best cloud apps in the market today. However, it is still just limited to the United States. You can get a telephone number for any US Area Code (sorry, only works in US) no matter how far or remote the area that you would like to be in. Google voice service also now allows you to choose words or witty phrases that your phone number spells out. So you can easily personalize and have fun choosing the number that you want such as (773)824- LOVE. The downside is that sometimes you cannot use an existing number of yours or have to pay a switching fee to allow it to switch to Google Voice which can be a sad fact for those who are married to a longtime cell number or the like

Another great thing about Google Voice is that you can forward incoming calls to ANY phone, to even more than one phone. This protects your privacy since you don’t have to give out your actual cell phone number and if you change phones, you don’t have to worry about missing calls.  This application forwards your calls to as many or as few numbers as you like, and you can even redirect calls to different phones depending on who is calling. This makes it easier for you to organize your call list, avoid unwanted callers and get the calls that you actually want.  Just like gmail, you can even set certain groups (or individuals) to be sent directly to Voicemail, to the Spam folder, or block the call altogether.

With Google voice, you are not stuck at home with a computer. It is portable and could even be used with ANY phone. It forwards the calls to wherever you are and you can check your messages from all the phones anywhere using the service. The Iphone has even launched an official application for Google Voice users.

If that’s not enough, Google Voice also allows you to thread incoming calls differently for different groups of callers. For example, unknown callers go straight to voicemail while family callers go to your cell phone and business callers only go to your cell during business hours. You can take that total holiday without fear of losing and missing any important calls. You can take your business anywhere with you and gives you freedom and allows you to organize contacts into groups for easy tracking and recording.

Google voice allows you to either have the calls sent directly to your phone with no filtering, or you can have Google ask them to say their name first so you can screen callers and choose the people you want to talk to or avoid. The service will call you, tell you the name of the person who is calling, and give you the option to take the call or send them to voicemail. This is a great way to protect your privacy. You can also customize the behavior of the service at anytime depending on a group (Friends, Family, Work, etc.) or an individual basis. This eliminates the guesswork and even gives you the ability to listen in on voicemails as they are being left.

This service also has a great voicemail system with transcription and email forwarding. Incoming voicemails are automatically transcribed and can be configured to be emailed to you. It could also be sent through SMS and is recorded and kept in the cloud forever. There is no fear now of losing a call record because you will all have them organized and permanently stored in the cloud.

Now for the best part, Google Voice gives you all of this for FREE.  It’s all free. And we all love free! How could you even compare to that?

So, this leaves me to ask: Do you use Google Voice? What do you think? What’s the good, the bad, and/or the ugly from your experience with Google Voice? Is it worth it or is it just another waste of a perfectly good cloud?

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