Google Voice set to revolutionise voice communications
Thursday 12 March 2009 | By Heidi Scott, Gosh! Media Copywriter
Following its first foray into the telecoms arena in 2008 with the launch of Android, its mobile operating system designed to rival the iPhone, Google is now stepping up its game with the introduction of its latest service, Google Voice.
The Californian giant has developed the new system – which helps users to manage their voice communications better – under the guise of GrandCentral, a company it acquired back in July 2007. Frustratingly, Google Voice is currently only available to existing GrandCentral customers in the US but will eventually be rolled out for us all to enjoy.
In addition to regular voice calls and the sending, receiving and storing of SMS, the solution allows users to consolidate all of their telecoms – work, mobile, home office, home and so on – into a programme that controls them under a single account. Each user gets a new 'master' number to tell colleagues, friends and family. When a call is placed to this number, Google Voice redirects it to all of the user's locations, causing all the 'phones to ring and allowing the customer to take the call at the nearest 'phone. What's more, users can set the system up so that the answerphone plays different messages according to which number the caller dialled, so friends and family get a more personal message, while colleagues or clients get a business-like response.
Google Voice requests first-time callers to identify themselves and stores their numbers, giving the user the ability to screen future calls. Users can also programme the system to allow instant call pick-up if a specific person rings and call divert if someone less popular calls. And, if you really dislike someone, calls from specific numbers can be totally blocked – bad news for those tiresome sales people!
And the really clever bit? Voicemail transcripts: Google Voice uses voice-to-text technology to transcribe voicemail messages into searchable e-mails so that users can read and store messages. This means that, when callers leave important information – such as a number to call them back on – everything is keyed in automatically, avoiding the need to listen to the answerphone several times to decipher a message! Google Voice has a number of other cool features too, such as conference calling, call switch during a call and call recording.
Last but by no means least, Google has said that its goal is to offer the service for free, rivalling Skype as well as all the landline and mobile companies.
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