Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums
Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.
Google Voice (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter St. Louis Bob
- Start date
It is immensely cool. 
Voicemail to text transcription is kinda spotty but it works better than I thought it would. SMS passthrough is 
.
Voicemail to text transcription is kinda spotty but it works better than I thought it would. SMS passthrough is .
Dentist
***Official FBG Dentist***
It's hard to describe -- it's like a do-everything voice number. You get a phone number assigned to you when you sign up (you get to pick your area code and then choose from a list of about 30 numbers). Then you go in and configure your account and set up all the phone numbers you have (home, work, cell, etc.). Then you can configure your contacts, set up a voicemail PIN, etc.From there, you give out your Google Voice number as your main number. You can designate in your settings which of your phones to ring when someone calls your Google Voice number. You can ring them all simultaneously, set it up to only ring certain numbers between certain times, or define that certain contacts or groups of contacts always ring on specified numbers only. You can also define custom greetings for individual callers.
You can enable call screening. This pretty much stops solicitors in their tracks. If this is enabled, if a number that is not in your contacts calls your number, Google Voice will answer and ask the caller to provide their name. They record it, then Google Voice rings your phones. When you answer, Google Voice will tell you who is calling and you can tell it to patch them through or send them to voicemail. If you send them to voicemail you can listen in and pick up if the message is important. You can also block the numbers of spam callers so that they always get a busy signal. Or you can set it up so that their voicemails get saved in your spam folder.
If you have voicemail to text transcription turned on, the system will record the voicemail, then transcribe it into text and send it to you via email or SMS. Either way, the voicemails are stored online and you can listen to them from any of your phones or by logging into Google Voice from your computer.
You can also record all or parts of any call you receive or make through Google Voice and store it in your inbox.
The service also acts as an SMS gateway. So Google Voice acts as an SMS proxy both inbound and outbound. People send text messages to your Google Voice number and it forwards the SMS messages to your cell phones(s). When you reply back, you can set it up so that the text appears to come from your phone number or from the Google voice number. It threads your text conversations like GMail does email and stores them in your Google Voice inbox. You can send, receive, or reply to text messages directly from the Google Voice webpage without using a cell phone.
It's also a conference call bridge. Up to 4 people can call in to your Google Voice number at once and you can press "5" on your handset to conference each caller in.
It also provides no-charge long distance calls within the US. Call your Google Voice number from one of your phones or go to the Google Voice page and you can enter a number to call. Then choose which of your phones you want to talk on. Google Voice will call you on the phone you choose, then dial the number you entered and patch you in. It also offers international calls the same way, but there is a per-minute charge. However, the rate is dirt-cheap, even less than Skype.
It has free voice-based directory assistance with GOOG-411. Call your Google Voice number and press 3 from the menu to activate it.
Seriously, it's about the coolest thing going right now. If they had integrated fax sending/retrieval, it would be pretty much untouchable from a feature standpoint.
Last edited by a moderator:
Dentist
***Official FBG Dentist***
i appreciated your post, but this statement was a tad excessive.i only have one phone number, my cell phone..BUT I am envisioning this being useful.I work in the office with my dad - one of us takes call on weekends in case someone has a dental emergency.I wonder if I could set up this google voice to be the phone number that we leave "on call" and then it can just forward the call to one of us so that patients don't have my actual cell phone #.or so that we could screen these calls better...thoughts?Memphis Foundry said:
metoo
Footballguy
if you don't have a grandcentral account it's a mute point. When I had a chance to get one, I passed it off.
PinkydaPimp
Footballguy
how can i get an invite?
Nah, it really isn't. When you are a technician by trade, you get to be pretty jaded as far as your expectations for technology. See one product rollout and you've seen them all. But every once in a while, something comes along that could be considered revolutionary in the same sense that e-mail was revolutionary. This is one of those things, IMO.
metoo
Footballguy
for now, u can't.
They've begun to issue beta invitations to media as part of the Google Voice rollout, the first that have been issued since Google bought GrandCentral and closed the beta around 18 months ago. My guess is they're probably still a couple of months away from opening the beta back up to the public, though.
Last edited by a moderator:
Bob Lee Swagger
Footballguy
I got lucky and got a Grand Central number quite a while ago (early on)...so I upgraded to Google Voice tonight and will start playing around with it more. Between the two small businesses I own and all of the non-profit work I do within various organizations, I REALLY like the idea of having the ability to re-route calls to any numbers I want to...custom to who is calling (or even when). That sounds like $$$ to me, but we'll see...
safariplanet
Footballguy
a wat
Keith is about the least prone to hyperbole guy I know. When he says it's the coolest thing going, it's the coolest thing going.J
Sulla
Marius hates me
I have two Grandcentral numbers. If you are interested, I can sell you one for a gazillion bucks. 
MF, that was an excellent summary of the service.
Grandcentral / Google Voice is a seriously useful service -- and it is FREE (at least it still is).
I don't like the new Google Voice interface, though. Looks like Gmail now. But the voice transcript and SMS forwarding features are money.
MF, that was an excellent summary of the service.
Grandcentral / Google Voice is a seriously useful service -- and it is FREE (at least it still is).
I don't like the new Google Voice interface, though. Looks like Gmail now. But the voice transcript and SMS forwarding features are money.
Dentist
***Official FBG Dentist***
well i'm glad that's settled.Keith, if you could please start a thread called "Coolest thing going" and update me with what i need to know to stay cool i'd appreciate it.
Abraham
Footballguy
This goes from being "really cool" to "invaluable" if Google - as they are suggesting - begins to support porting numbers in to the app. You could port your current number that friends, family, and contacts have and then never need a new number. Each time you changed carriers or devices, you could just change the forwarding in the GT account and no one would be the wiser.
As it is, I'm excited about seeing how the interface works on my phone. Essentially you can get visual voicemail and speech-to-text for free, which is awesome.
Finally, as a trick, you can get one over on your cell provider by doing the following: if you have TMobile's "My Faves" or a similar program on another carrier, pick your GC/GT number as one of your Fave 5. Then, you can use the app to make a call having it ring your cell number and then connect you to the person you want to talk to. Since your carrier has the number calling your cell as a "Fave", you won't be charged for the minutes. It takes an extra step as compared to simply dialing the number yourself, but it also provides unlimited minutes regardless of your plan.
As it is, I'm excited about seeing how the interface works on my phone. Essentially you can get visual voicemail and speech-to-text for free, which is awesome.
Finally, as a trick, you can get one over on your cell provider by doing the following: if you have TMobile's "My Faves" or a similar program on another carrier, pick your GC/GT number as one of your Fave 5. Then, you can use the app to make a call having it ring your cell number and then connect you to the person you want to talk to. Since your carrier has the number calling your cell as a "Fave", you won't be charged for the minutes. It takes an extra step as compared to simply dialing the number yourself, but it also provides unlimited minutes regardless of your plan.
NYG Endzone
Footballguy
I've been using GrandCentral (now Google Voice) for a few years. Its amazing 
- Can "listen in" on voicemail's (as they are being recorded) and decide to pick them up during the message. Great feature for screening telemarketers and the BS calls we all receive.
- No longer have to give your cell or home phone number out for anything (except for select friends/family/work etc...)
- Can store voicemails forever and the notifications are great reminders in your email/sms inbox.
- Can decide which people are allowed to be forwarded to certain numbers (ring home # for friends but not private/blocked callers, ring work number for family only).
- Call log of every incoming call in to you online.
- Now that it supports SMS, this is top notch.
- Can "listen in" on voicemail's (as they are being recorded) and decide to pick them up during the message. Great feature for screening telemarketers and the BS calls we all receive.
- No longer have to give your cell or home phone number out for anything (except for select friends/family/work etc...)
- Can store voicemails forever and the notifications are great reminders in your email/sms inbox.
- Can decide which people are allowed to be forwarded to certain numbers (ring home # for friends but not private/blocked callers, ring work number for family only).
- Call log of every incoming call in to you online.
- Now that it supports SMS, this is top notch.
Saints-Man
Footballguy
Saints-Man
Footballguy
StLB, did you just come across this or do someone tell you about this? I am always impressed by people who keep up with the latest in technology. I am interested in doing so, but just don't know how.St. Louis Bob said:
Saints-Man
Footballguy
As GranCentral, was it still a Google product or did Google buy them out?I've been using GrandCentral (now Google Voice) for a few years. Its amazing
...
Gordo
Footballguy
Google bought GrandCentral a year or two ago, and are just revamping it as Google Voice now.As GranCentral, was it still a Google product or did Google buy them out?I've been using GrandCentral (now Google Voice) for a few years. Its amazing
...
Abraham
Footballguy
Its very easy: add the following sites to your daily routine or RSS reader...www.boygeniusreport.com
www.gizmodo.com
www.engadget.com
www.techcrunch.com
gadgets.boingboing.net
I also suggest a subscription to "Wired" ($10 a year) which covers not only gadgets, but pretty much most of the cool stuff going on in geek-science.
It was a standalone company for about a year. Google bought them, closed the invites, and hid it til about 2 weeks ago when they launched Google Talk. Since I sign up for so many sites to "try" and rarely integrate any in to my daily routine, I picked a number in Mountain View, CA (where google is located) instead of in Austin (where I live). Since I joined relatively early, my number is easy to remember (the whole 10 digit thing only has 4 different digits and the last 7 digits repeat a pattern). I have a new Cell on the way with a new number and if ATT won't let me switch my current number to my new line, then I'll likely switch to my Mountain View number permanently and tell all my friends and family that I've moved to California.As GranCentral, was it still a Google product or did Google buy them out?I've been using GrandCentral (now Google Voice) for a few years. Its amazing
...
Abraham
Footballguy
To Keith's point, this is the logical place for phones to go. For years, phone numbers were meant simply as a way for people to track you down and talk to you on the phone if you answered. But the proliferation of Cell phones has made a phone number as much of an identifying factor (if not more so) then anything else out there. It is only logical that the next frontier in mass communication would be giving people more power and functionality as it relates to their communication capabilities.
Saints-Man
Footballguy
Thanks for the great post!!!!!!!!!!!! One thing...I have been using Google Talk for a while now, just as a standard IM that stores your chats in Google. Was it called something different previously?
Keith already said a few posts up he thinks Google Voice is the coolest thing going. No need for a new thread.J
Last edited by a moderator:
Dentist
***Official FBG Dentist***
Well sure.. but surely in a few months there will be a new coolest thing going.Frankly if that thread existed i could've known about google voice months ago.I want to stay on the cutting edge of "coolest thing going"I need this new thread
jhib
Footballguy
Corporation
Angry Bovine
I don't have a texting plan, so when people send me texts its costing me .20 a piece even though I don't look at them. If they text my google number, is this going to cost me, or would I only see the texts if I go to the google voice web page? I have an iphone so it's not a problem to bookmark that page.Too many features to figure out right now
gregjcross
Footballguy
Voice communication, eventually, is going to Internet Protocol (IP), and the very cool features like what Google is offering through Grand Central, in about 5 years will look fairly commonplace. Next step: We really need cell phones to support Wi-Fi and make all calls free when we are at home while offering crystla clear reception as long as we have broadband at home or a Femtocell device to expand signal, so we wont use 3G or CDMA, rather our own Wi-Fi network. I hope this is coming sooner than later. I havent looked at Google's visual interface for voice is yet, but the interface will mean a lot and the features will be ubiquitous across many different IP services for homes and small offices. What scares me is Spam and hackers (such as Internet traffic injection attacks, trojans etc.) infiltrating our phones the way it does our computers. That will suck but seems inevitable
Last edited by a moderator:
gregjcross
Footballguy
The flipside to all of this is that Google wants to own its users and all of our activity and GMAIL/email being sucked into their big brother like massive databases where eventually our behavior, words, phone calls, texts etc. become a behavior model to them and possibly sold to marketing organizations unless Google is simply using it for placing the most relevant ads.
Last edited by a moderator:
AAAll-Stars
Footballguy
PM me an invite plz
PatsWillWin
Footballguy
So far all I've done with this is prank-text someone.
Colin Dowling
Footballguy
I'm still waiting for them to let people port numbers IN to it, at which point I'll be using it a ton.
Running with scissors
Stark Raving Sane
Needs more Canada before I can do much of anything with it.
Similar threads
