Items tagged with Google Voice
Do roaming charges have you feeling down? Good news—Google has begun beta testing Wi-Fi calling on its Google Voice service for Android devices and on the web. As for iOS, Google says support is coming soon, but did not offer up a specific date. This is especially helpful for people who own more than one mobile device, such as a personal phone and a separate one for work. Through the beta program, users can make calls over Wi-Fi on any compatible device that has Google Voice installed, or on the web. Not only could this potentially reduce roaming charges (if that is something you contend with), it can also help you keep in touch in places with poor cell service, provided there is a Wi-Fi...
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If you have felt that the Google Voice app was both antiquated and lacking in features, you are not alone. Google Voice has at times seemed like the red-headed stepchild of the Google family, but the company today is taking steps to enhance the calling and messaging experience. For starters, the Google Voice app has received a complete top-to-bottom visual overhaul that is much appreciated after years of stagnation. Both the iOS and Android apps — along with the web version of Google Voice — now used the Material Design aesthetic through. Navigating the Google Voice UI is also a lot more streamlined, as Google has implemented tabs that allow you to easily access your calls, voicemails and text...
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As part of a concerted effort to improve the accessibility features of its various online services, Google now allows you to edit documents in Google Docs using your voice. Whether it's typing out a sentence or paragraph, editing text, or formatting your document, it can all now be done by barking out commands.The idea is to make it easier for people with disabilities who can't use a keyboard or touchscreen to edit documents. Just select "Voice typing" in the "Tools" menu when using Google Docs in Chrome and start talking. In addition to jotting down your speech, Google Docs understands a wide variety of editing commands, like "insert table" and "align left," to name just two of many. No small...
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Visual voicemail is a wonderful thing...in theory. The idea of being able to read our voicemails in text form is both convenient and awesome, though in practice, it's not usual to stare at a jumble of words trying to figure out if the caller was drunk or if it was simply a poor transcription. Even Google is not shy of admitting that voicemail transcriptions in Google Voice at times "aren't completely intelligible," and at other times "are humorously intelligible."You may be thinking, 'Great, you've acknowledged the problem, Google, now fix it!' and the good news is you should see continued improvement in your transcribed voicemails. This is something Google has been actively working on, in part...
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The vast majority of Android devices still aren't seeing their Ice Cream Sandwich update, but those that have it can now look forward to a new edition of Google Voice that better integrates visual voicemail. The feature has been supported since 2009, enabling users to see all your voicemails with text transcripts, and play them on-demand. But this week, the updated app allows users to view and listen to your voicemails on demand directly from the call log on your Android phone. Your voicemails will appear alongside your outgoing, incoming, and missed calls in your phone’s call log and you can just simply touch them to play them. You can slow down the playback of the message which is great...
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Recently, Sprint and Google teamed up for tight integration between Sprint handsets and Google Voice. While this was seen as a great idea, perhaps it's not such a great deal if you take into account the gotcha. There are two ways to integrate Google Voice on a Sprint handset. They are: Option 1: Keep your Sprint number: Your Sprint number becomes your Google Voice number so that when people call your Sprint mobile number, it rings all the phones you want. Option 2: Replace your Sprint number with your Google Voice number: All calls made and texts sent from your Sprint phone will display your Google Voice number. The problem comes when Option 2 is chosen. Sprint offers free mobile-to-mobile calls,...
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Sprint and Google plan to make the Google Voice experience available to all Sprint customers. Today, the two companies announced plans to allow users to set their existing wireless phone number from Sprint as their Google Voice number. With this announcement, Sprint customers will get the benefits of Google Voice without the hassle and fees of porting their number. The service will soon be available on all Sprint CDMA phones. Sprint and Google to Launch Integrated Google Voice Experience on All Sprint Phones, Including Upcoming Nexus S 4G Sprint is first carrier to allow customers to use their existing mobile number as their Google Voice number without porting OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Mar 21, 2011...
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Ready. Set. GO! If you've been patiently waiting to port your existing phone number over to Google Voice and flip the bird at your cellular company, start flexing your middle finger because your time has come. Following a limited preview of the service (Google initially only tagged a certain number of accounts that were allowed to port their number over), all existing users are now welcome to retain their phone number while using Google Voice. "One of the most frequent requests we hear from people who use (or want to use) Google Voice is that they'd like to get all of Google Voice's features without having to give up their long-time phone numbers," Google said in a blog post. "Today, we're excited...
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It's back, after what developer Sean Kovacs called "a year and a half of being sick." It's GV Mobile + and it's back in the App Store. Last year, Apple purged all Google Voice-enabled apps from the App Store. Recently, after Apple published its App Store guidelines, developers noted that their GV-enabled apps did not violate any of those policies, and thus re-submitted themselves. It wasn't a race, but in terms of the first GV app to re-reach the App Store, it was GV Connect, not GV Mobile + that did so. Of course, the link to GV Mobile + may or may not work for you as yet: it's propagating globally across iTunes servers. You might want to start Tweeting about it, though. Kovacs said on his blog...
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T-Mobile announced the successor to its G1 smartphone, the new T-Mobile G2 with Google. The G2 will support T-Mobile’s new HSPA+ network, which T-Mobile is touting as offering 4G speeds. Designed by HTC, the G2 combines a large, 3.7-inch screen with a hinge design that opens to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. The phone runs on Android 2.2 and an 800MHz Snapdragon MSM7230 mobile processor. The phone will have a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and the ability to record HD video (720p). For storage, the G2 comes with a 4GB internal memory and a pre-installed 8GB micro SD card with support for up to 32GB of external memory. The T-Mobile G2 is one of the first smartphones to work with the new Voice...
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Google Voice has a new feature. While you can already get notifications emailed to you if you have a voicemail left at your Google Voice number, what if you miss a call? Now that can be emailed to you as well. It's another new feature for Google Voice, which let's you have one or more phones rung (or the call sent directly to VM) when someone calls your Google Voice number. If you miss a call, you can have a notification in your Google Voice inbox, or emailed to you, or both. All you have to do is go into your Google Voice settings, under the Calls tab, and at the bottom you will see the Missed Calls section at the bottom. It's a nice addition to an already great service. Now if we could only...
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We know that Google is constantly experimenting with new ideas, and rolling them out as they come to fruition. Thus, on Wednesday, we saw another feature come to Gmail, which Google seems to be focusing on as a communications center. While you have been able voice chat to other Gmail users through Gtalk for some time, how about this: voice calls from Gmail? It would seem to be a natural extension of the voice chat functionality, and Google Voice as well. While you can use Google Voice to make a call, it doesn't use VOIP to do so: it calls your phone and then calls the recipient as well. Obviously this sort of functionality has a high-profile target, Skype (or maybe two, Fring). Launched from...
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Google has released an updated Google Voice has been updated on BlackBerry and Android phones. The new version will reduce the amount of time it takes for a user to make a call via the service. Google Voice is the service that Google acquired when it was GrandCentral. It allows you to receive a call on your Google Voice number, and have it directed to a number of phones, or straight to voicemail, depending on the caller. You can also call with that number, and have it display as your GV number, not your actual number. Access can be via the web, or an app, and when GV records a VM it will email or text message you. In the past, Google said, Google Voice had to ping Google's servers to send them...
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Google has revolutionized a few things in their short time on Earth as a mega-corporation, with search being at the top. But they've also created the only real rival to Apple's iOS system, and they've also changed the way the world thinks about e-mail and cloud-based Office suites. Now, Google is hoping to change telecommunications, with Google Voice taking a major leap out into the world. For well over a year, Google Voice has been an invite-only service. Basically, anyone with a Google Voice number (which in the US is just a standard 10-digit phone number) can arrange to have that number ring all of their phones, and any voicemail left to that number can be checked anywhere in the world, from...
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In the past, invites for Google's Voice service could take anywhere from a few hours to several months to arrive after a user signs up. Recently, however, the company announced that it would give priority to users with an .edu email address. In fact, the company has promised that if you cough up an email address that ends in .edu, you'll get a Google Voice invite within 24 hours. You can visit google.com/voice/students to submit your address. Google Voice invites for students We’ve found that Google Voice can be useful in many different ways to many different people. But one group of people that it’s especially well-suited for is students. We’ve heard college students in particular...
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It may sound somewhat wild, but Google could very well take over the world. We know, you're thinking we're crazy, but the evidence is mounting. It has taken over the search market (and improved usability all the while), it has crafted its own mobile operating system (one that actually rivals the mighty iPhone), it's currently developing its own computer operating system in Chrome OS, it already has a Chrome web browser that's easily better than Microsoft's Internet Explorer, it has a chat tool that may trump Campfire in Google Wave, and now it's fixing to replace your phone company. Who's laughing now, right? Google's GrandCentral (and Google Voice) has already taken the talkative generation...
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If you are interested in taking advantage of some of the cool new features of Google Voice but aren’t very excited about the idea of getting a new phone number, Google’s latest offering may be of interest to you. Google recently introduced a lighter version of Google Voice that can answer calls to users’ cell phones. Google Voice offers a number of cool features, including the ability to route calls to different phones and voicemail that can transcribe messages. In order to take advantage of these features however, you must get a new number from Google Voice. Since not all users are ready to make that leap and deal with an additional phone number, Google came up with a way to tie existing mobile...
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According to people familiar with the matter, the Federal Communications Commission plans to open an inquiry into Google's Voice service, looking into how the service works and whether or not the Internet giant is restricting calls. Earlier this week, a group of 20 Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives who mostly represent rural areas wrote a letter to the FCC asking it to investigate Google's ability to block calls."We are formally requesting an investigation by the FCC into the nature and function of Google Inc's voice service," they wrote in the letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. The FCC has already sought information from Google and AT&T. At the heart...
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AT&T, still smarting from all the flak it took over the Google Voice rejection from the App Store*, fired off a letter to the FCC on Friday, charging Google with violating FCC regulations by blocking calls to certain rural areas from its Google Voice service. Google Voice, currently invitation only, allows users to connect all of their phone numbers, wireless or landline, to one common number and manage the calls and messages through a Web site or by calling the number itself and accessing functions through a phone interface. According to AT&T, Google blocks calls to certain rural communities, something telecommunications companies cannot do; they are required to provide equal access...
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Google continues to try to make Gmail its centralized location for all things Google. The latest addition to Gmail, via Google Labs, is Google Voice integration into Gmail.Google Voice, nee GrandCentral and purchased by Google, is a service that allows users to give out one number and have it ring another, "real" number, or even multiple number, or even go straight to voicemail. Certain features allow you to SMS or call using that number. Previously, or without the Labs feature, called "Google Voice player in mail," when you would receive an email from your Google Voice account alerting you to a voicemail, along with an automated transcript of the voicemail, there would be a link to play...
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Google Voice is great. It gives you a one number that you can give out which rings different phones (or goes straight to voicemail) depending on the caller. You can even call someone and have them see your Google Voice number by calling your Google Voice number, logging in, and pressing 2. Ah, but how much easier would it be if we didn't need to take that extra step. That's the point behind these mobile apps. On Wednesday, Google is releasing mobile apps for both Android and BlackBerry. These will allow users to make calls with their Google Voice number without the step outlined above. Naturally, as Android is Google's platform, the Android app is the most integrated version, taking over the...
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It was great when number portability came to cell phones. It was great when Google Voice (nee GrandCentral), promising one number to ring multiple phones emerged as a service. What if you could port your number to Google Voice, though? That's what TechCrunch says is coming. While the fact that Google Voice is supposed to be a number you can keep forever, if you could port the cell phone number or some business number you have currently plastered all over your business cards to it, think of how much more useful it could be. Besides that, it seems that Google is also preparing to launch new mobile applications that will automatically route outbound calls through Google Voice, which would mean that...
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