Google Voice- Not Yet Public, Already Poised For Greatness

Posted on 15 June 2009, at 5:48 am, by Dan Cohen

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Google Voice is incredibly powerful and, thanks to my already having a Grand Central number, while many people continue to wait for Google to open access to their service, I’ve been using it and relying on it, for numerous weeks already.

The service is fantastic. It offers a host of features but its core feature, and the one that is most helpful on a day-to-day basis, is that it allows people to call a single number and have any telephone numbers I choose ring. Add to that the fact that different groupings within my Google Voice address book received different messages and you have the makings of something that can all but transform the way we communicate by telephone.

It is not, however, without its problems.

First off is the problem that very few people actually have access to it currently. That will likely change in the next weeks when Google throws the doors open. The more fundamental problem is that in order to use the service you need to have people calling your specific Google Voice number. That means, at a minimum, sending every contact an entirely new phone number. Not the easiest thing to do. And if you continue to call someone from your cell phone directly they will see, and likely respond, to your cell number. And when they do… they will then completely bypass all of the goodies Google Voice offers. It is a core issue with the service and one that, for many, renders it all but useless.

There are, fortunately, solutions. I’ve been using an excellent workaround in the form of SkyDeck (the full spread of it is in the works) and I’ve been quite happy with system. With SkyDeck the primary phone number is my cell phone number, not my Google number. So long as someone calls that number (and it is the one most people know) all is good in the world. You see, the SkyDeck/Google Voice mashup makes it so that if I don’t answer my cell phone SkyDeck interfaces with Google Voice and routes the call or calls to any number I have set. With the mashup Google Voice routes calls to my other numbers secondarily to my cell number ringing and, in the process, maintains all of Google Voice’s other functionality such as voice message transcription. In addition, I actually got the paid version of the service (which is why they offered the Google boys mashup for free in the first place). It allows me to place calls from the Sky Deck application in my web browser and the number that shows up on someone else’s phone is my cell phone number. It works quite well and, overall, I’m very pleased.

In the near future, however, there may be another option.

According to TechCrunch Google is working on number portability and should have it up sometime in the near future. That means you could take a number that has been yours for an extended period of time and port it andover to Google Voice so that your transition to the service is all but invisible to those who are calling you. In addition, the site reports that Google is also working on applications that will interface with whatever device you’re using at the time so that when you call from that device the number displayed is your Google Voice number rather than a hand held number.

The details aren’t fully clear at this point — heck, active service isn’t even open to the public yet — but it does tell us one thing — Google is serious about Google Voice. That alone means a potential to transform telecommunication as we know it and that the service as exists now is likely nothing compared to what will be out within the next year or two.

I know that’s of little comfort to those who want to get into the service is still aren’t able, but look at it this way, I think I need to get a Google voice number could be even more powerful than it is today.