Introduction
What is Google Voice?
Google Voice is a telecommunications service by Google launched on March 11, 2009. Simply it gives you one single number for all your phones, voice-mail that is easy as email, and many enhanced calling features like call blocking and screening, voice-mail transcripts, call conferencing, international calls, and more. In other words, Google Voice gives you a separate phone number which you can give out as if it is your regular phone number. A report says that there are 1.4 million users, 570,000 of which used the service 7 days a week. It's now available to everyone, for free.[1]
Main page of GrandCentral, an original service which reborn as Google Voice nowadaysGoogle acquired the service when it bought startup Grand Central in 2007 for US $95 million. The goal of Grand Central service was to make your phone life as simple as possible. The core to this goal was to give you a single number which can then reach you everywhere, on all of your phones. In 2009, Google revealed that the team had been working on the new version of Grand Central which was rebranded 'Google Voice' which kept the most of the functionality originally offered in Grand Central and add new features. On March 2009, Google voice was launched, based on GrandCentral, with new features, including voicemail transcriptions and SMS managing. Also, Google transitioned former GrandCentral accounts to Google Voice. After a few months, GranCentral services were shut down. On November 12, 2009, Google acquired Gizmo5 for a reported U.S. $30 million.[2]
How Google Voice works?
Google Voice is not primarily a VoIP service like Skype. However, it does take advantage of VoIP technology over the internet to allow users to make calls for lower prices. Google Voice works as the following way: any call initiated through Google Voice necessarily has to pass through the PSTN, the traditional phone system. But the PSTN doesn’t do all the work.[3] The call is then handed to the Google space on internet which is where the numbers are pooled. For example, suppose that the call is directed to another Google Voice number, that number is identified within Google’s numbers, and from there, the call is sent to its final destination. Again, the main aim of Google Voice is to unify the telephone communication channels, more so than saving on cost. As a result, you can easily switch carrier without having to change phone number, as one number can ring any phone through any carrier. Cost-wise, this also implies that you still have to pay your phone or wireless carrier since Google Voice is not a complete alternative to the services of these carriers, unlike Skype and the like.
Major features of Google Voice
Video about Google Voice's features on YouTube
One Number: The ability to use one phone number in place of all your existing ones is the defining feature of Google Voice. Google Voice gives you a separate phone number which you can give out as if it is your regular phone number. Whenever somebody dialed your unified google number, all of your phones rang at once. You can then change your settings to have calls forward to any of your phones. For example, you can forward to one group of phones during the day and another at night or you can have calls from certain numbers forward differently than calls to other numbers. all of this is done through the Google Voice management site on the Internet.[3]
Free calls and SMS text in the US and Canada: Google Voice currently provides free PC to Phone calls available into North America. Inbound calls to this number are forwarded to other phone numbers of the subscriber. And you can use the Google Voice website or download the Google Voice app to your smartphones and text using your cell phone and Google Voice number. If someone sends you a message at your Google number, it will forward the message to any mobile phone you have set up in your account. When you reply, it will appear to come from your Google Voice phone number.
Voice mail transcriptions: Google Voice converts the voice mail recordings into typed text and they are shown up as e-mail messages or text messages on your cellphone. This means that you can search, sort, save, forward, copy or paste voice mail messages.
Low rates of international phone calls: If users dial their own Google Voice numbers from one of your phones, they are offered an option to call overseas. the international rates are competitive with other services such as Skype's ; for example, 2 cents a minute to most European countries in the middle of the day. [4]
Other features :
- Call screening
- Call recording and online achieving
- Viewing the web inbox from a mobile device/phone
- Mobile phone application
- Integration into Gmail - importing contacts from most other sources call screening
Advantages - reasons to use it over other services
Routing power - route calls to certain type you want'One number' system eliminates the problem of having multiple numbers for multiple purposes. The true power comes with routing options when you specify the routing options for all of your phones. Even certain callers can be routed directly into your voicemail.
Screening power - many ways to answer callsUnlike other services, Google Voice offers several options once a call comes through; answer the call, send it to voicemail, send it to voicemail and listen in live, or answer it and record the call. Also, if the caller is not in your contacts list, Google voice can ask for their name and play it back when you pick up.
Voicemail power - free control on voicemailSince Google Voice's voicemail system allows you to listen while they are recording voice messages. Most importantly, the voicemail recorded by Google Voice system can be fully accessible over the internet, thus enabling users to listen to them online, forward them to other users, and even embed them on other web sites. The text transcription service via e-mail or text message can be used effectively.
SMS power - control it as if e-mailSMS is fully integrated into Google Voice. If someone sends a message to your Google number, the service will route it to any mobile phones you connect. the reply can be executed from any of your phones or via online as well. And Google Voice has the storage system for all of your SMS texts which means every text can be filed, searched or kept forever as if it were e-mail.
Midcall power - freely switch phonesIn the middle of a call, you can start recording calls with a touch of a single button or switch phones without having to interrupt the call. You can press the start key while talking, an your other connected phones will begin to ring. Simply, you can pick any of other calls up, hang the original phone up as if nothing had happened.
Drawbacks - Google voice is not for you
Privacy issue - Evil Google: As well as the case with many other Google products, privacy is a significant issue within discussion of Google Voice. By using Google Voice to control all of your phones, you expose a vast amount of personal information to Google. Everything, from the call history to every voice message recorded, is stored on Google's servers. Thus, Google are able to create a portfolio of you. Even though Google voice is governed by a privacy policy that explains what can and can't happen with your data, it could be used for certain purposes outside of your own personal perusal. Some people are concerned that Google Voice may lead to increased profiling and tracking of users without safeguards.
Advertisement -Google uses your data for advertisement: As of now, Google Voice is cost-free and ad-free. However, it is expected that Google would use the system to help accelerate its mobile penetration by creating a larger mobile ecosystem against which Google can sell, target and monetize advertisement. The monetization plan could play a key role; Google Voice could use data about your calling habits or the content from your texts and voicemails to customize ads within the service.
Technical reliability - it's imperfect: In fact, Google voice technology could be fallible. The world has seen plenty of Google-related service outages over the years and in Google Voice, technical errors could be more risky in that you would not be able to receive any calls or text messages. And a few problems using the services, including failed call recordings and other similar issues, have been raised up. Among many issues, the transcription service can give you some less than-literal translations. Voicemails may or may not come throughout perfectly when transcribed to text. For example, "I hope to see you soon" may come through as "I love your friend June". [5]
Number-changing hassle: Since you get a new Google Voice number, you might have to reprint business cards or stationery, and you would have to have the time to update your information anywhere you have an account or I.D.
It kills wireless service providersAT&T petitioned the U.S. Federal Communications Commission that Google should be required to allow calls to high-cost destinations. Google responded that it is not obliged to allow these calls.Also, In 2009, Apple Inc rejected a Google Voice app, stating that the reason for the rejection and removals is that Google Voice replaced certain iPhone functions and features. In November 2010, the official iPhone application became available in the App store.
Conclusion - future of Google Voice
In terms of the market of VoIP service providers, Skype has dominated the world by its free calls, chat or video calls, providing service over 170 countires The Skype software application garnered hundreds of millions of users because of its ability to make clear audio and video calls to both phones and computers. It has been the standard on voice over Internet protocol technology. However, with Google Voice, google has turned into a legitimate Skype competitor. Google Voice takes a different approach by providing each user with one personal number that can call any phones, along with innovative features, such as voicemail transcription and call screening. Even though Google Voice entered the market relatively late, I think that Google Voice could be a solid competitor against Skype in some aspects. The core idea of Google Voice that makes it different from other service providers will be the key for its success. 'Giving you one number' is not a huge paradigm shift from what standard VoIP systems are today, but it could allow you to have more flexibility in using phones. In the future, I expect that this will become the standard way of having a phone and it will simply listen for calls from the centralized system. In my case of e-mail service, I didn't want to check both my personal e-mail account(G-mail) and school account(Andrew), so I imported Andrew email to my G-mail service so that I just have to check one account to track all of my emails. This idea also makes sense in phone service since we really don't want to have to keep track of multiple numbers and try multiple places to reach someone. In addition, tremendous number of G-mail users will help Google Voice in that it can be integrated in G-mail and G-mail users can easily track and control over your phones. However, its issue of privacy that your personal data stored by Google can be used for advertisement and imperfect technology, such as voicemail transcription would be possible threats and withdraws to its success.
Reference
[1]http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/business-week-14-million-google-voice-users-global-push-in-the-works/2681
[2]https://www.gizmocall.com/gc/app?class=GizmoCall&proc=gcStart
[3]http://voip.about.com/od/unifiedcommunications/f/HowGoogleVoiceWorks.htm
[4]https://www.google.com/voice/rates#C
[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice
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