My new number is (502) 509-5074.
Go ahead and give me a call if you like.
I’d heard about Google Voice before it came out, but with the hustle and bustle of life, I didn’t set mine up right when it released. It wasn’t until I saw my friend, Dru, had one that I decided to go get my own.
A Google Voice account gives a number of advantages, but here are a few I like:
- You get a new number.
- You can use the same number over multiple phones.
- You get a voice mail system that will transcribe your calls if you like.
- You can send phone calls and texts and manage your phone system through your computer. (I’m on the computer all the time, so this works out well for me.)
- You can connect with this phone system anywhere you have Internet access.
- You get it all for free (in the U. S. and Canada).
To set mine up, all I had to do was follow the instructions here. I’m a big fan of Google (have I mentioned that before?), so I already had a basic account with Gmail and some other services. If you don’t, definitely set that up.
Also, if you don’t already have Google Chat, you can get that here. Without it, you can still use Google Voice, but you won’t be able to send and receive calls from your computer. That’s up to you really – you might only want to reroute your calls to your other phones (home, office, cell, etc.).
Once you’ve downloaded everything, play around with the settings in the top right corner of Voice to record your voice mail greetings and other settings. Particularly, under the Phone tab, check the box you want your Google number to forward to. Of course I set up mine to connect with my Google Chat because I think that’s part of the coolness of this whole thing.
Google does a good job explaining how everything works. If you’re having trouble, though, just google it. 🙂 There’s a bunch of info out about it already.
One other thing that’s important if you’re new to Google Chat. Once you’re set up, you’ll need to let the world know you’re available to receive calls. In your Gmail/Chat account, on the left side, you should see a Chat heading. Under it, you’ll see a Sign-In option. You have to sign in whenever you’re available to receive calls. Otherwise, all your calls go straight to your voice mail (although in some cases, that might be exactly what you want).
Overall, this is probably one of the worse tutorials/introductions to Google Voice or Google anything for that matter. The main thing I’d like you to get out of this is that Google Voice is cool, you should set yours up, and at the very least give me a call on my new number (so I can get yours):
(502) 509-5074.
