Google Voice, announced in March, is still not available to the general public. However, I've been using Google's free voice over IP/centralized messaging service for a few weeks, and I'm impressed.
A few early impressions:
* Audio quality has mostly been good. A few times, the person I was talking to said there was some crackle on the line, or that they couldn't hear what I'd just said. But the majority of the time, call quality has been much better than a cell phone but not quite as good as a landline.
* I love the ability to send and receive SMS messages for free from Google Voice. Yes, you can do this in Gmail already. But with Google Voice, the replies to your text messages come to your mobile phone as well as to your Google Voice inbox. With Gmail, the responses to my text messages only go to my Gmail account--which means I have to be at my computer to get them.
* Voicemail transcription accuracy is better than I expected, though not as accurate as Vonage's voicemail transcription service. However, Google Voice transcriptions are free; Vonage charges a nominal amount per transcription.
Google Voice isn't going to replace any of my phone services, at least not yet. You can't currently port an existing phone number to a Google Voice account, for one thing. And unlike Skype or a softphone application, you must have a landline, mobile phone service, or other existing phone line in order to use Google Voice. (To place a call for you, Google Voice must call you on a phone. Once you answer, Google Voice connects you to the number you've dialed.)
When will Google Voice be available? It could be tomorrow, or it could be two months from yesterday. Google is being vague. Stay tuned.
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Posted by: Samuel Peterson | July 16, 2009 at 01:36 PM
A nice Blog.. continue.
Posted by: Quickbooker | August 19, 2009 at 02:48 AM