Thoughts on Google Voice
I've been a Grand Central user since the summer of 2007, and Google Voice is a great next step, adding SMS, Voicemail Transcription, and Conference Calling. I think the service is still just a preview of a real solution to the problem of routing voice communications. GV gives you one number, and incoming calls (and SMS) to that number will ring all the phones you tell it to. The problem is that your various phones still have their own real numbers, and to make outgoing calls that show up with your GV number for the recipient, you need to go online and initiate the call from the google voice web interface.
Ideally all your devices will someday be able to use your one number when making outbound connections. I wouldn't be surprised if this software is already being developed by Google and T-Mobile for the G1, but suspect it will really take another 10+ years while we wait for non-VOIP phones to be retired.
That's my hope for the future, but in the short term, there are a couple of things irritating me:
- Each of my destination phones thinks it is my voicemail provider and should answer the phone after a few rings. If I want to use GV's wonderful voicemail I need to disable voicemail on my cell phone, skype, and office phone, which is a pain.
- Outgoing calls initiated via the web require me and the other person to each answer the phone, and in my tests today, the calls went straight to my cell phone's voicemail without ever ringing, so the person I called answered the phone to hear Sprint asking them to leave me a message... probably Sprint's fault, but it's not usable for me right now.
That said, my thanks go to Google for buying and building the next step in voice communications.
