Google Voice: Your Top Wireless Tool
This is a review of the benefits and cautions of using Google Voice for wireless users. Most Google Voice features are FREE!

With Google Voice you can get a phone number that is tied to you, not to a device or a location. Make and pick up calls, send and get texts, and read and listen to voicemails on your phone, tablet, or computer. You can change the device your Google Voice number is connected to, as necessary.  You can choose a random number, one that is meaningful to you, or you can transfer your existing number.  You can also choose a scaled-down version, Google voice Lite which allows you to control your messages through Google Voice - Voice Mail.  

• Google Voice Gives You One Number for All of Your Phones
  A phone number that is tied to you, not to a device or a location. Make and pick up calls, send and get texts, and read and listen to voicemails on your phone, tablet, or computer.  You can choose a random number, one that is meaningful to you, or you can transfer your existing number.
  
  

• Text From Any Browser or Phone

  Google Voice also offers free texting. You can send and receive texts in your browser from the Google Voice website or via the Google Voice Chrome extension. The Google Voice mobile app also offers free texts, so you can text for free from your phone without any unofficial apps. This also gives you an archive of your texts you can search online, you won’t lose your texts when you reset your phone or get a new one.
  
  
• Voice Mail as Easy as Email: 
  Read transcriptions of your voicemails, add notes, download, and share voicemails. It doesn’t just give you a piece of audio to listen to, Google Voice uses advanced speech recognition to transcribe your voice mail, turning it into readable text. If Google Voice messes up the transcription or you’d just rather hear the original message, you can also listen to the attached audio file on your phone or computer.
  
  

• Customize Your Callers' Experience: 
  Screen calls and create personalized greetings for family, friends, or coworkers based on the number calling.
  
  
• Pick Up Calls from Any Phone: 
  Choose to receive calls at home, work, or on your mobile phone, based on who's calling or when.

• Choose a Custom Google Voice Number:
  The number can be new, or you can transfer your current number.  When choosing a new Google Voice number, you will be able to choose among several numbers, but not necessarily in your local area. Adding a Google number to your Google Voice account is free. To transfer your mobile number to become a Google number will cost $20. If you decide to change your Google number, there is a $10 one-time fee to change it. To transfer away your Google number to a mobile carrier will cost $3 unless you paid the $20 to transfer in.
  
  
• It Works on All Phones in the US and on Other Devices Worldwide:
  Right now, Google Voice is only available in the U.S. Users outside the U.S. can use Google Voice to make phone calls using Hangouts on a computer, Android device, or iOS device. Also, Google Voice integrates all of their cool functionality uniquely on phones from Sprint. Almost all calls made from Google Voice to the U.S. and Canada are Free. A few U.S., Canada and Mexico destinations will cost 1 cent per minute (USD), or the listed rate for your local currency. Calls to destinations outside of the U.S. are at low rates.
  
  

• Make and Receive Calls From Gmail
  Google allows anyone to place free calls to the US and Canada from Gmail. However, these calls will appear to come from a random shared number that your recipients won’t recognize. If you switch to Google Voice, calls you place from Gmail will appear to come from your own personal Google Voice number. Best of all, you can even receive incoming calls in Gmail and answer them from your computer. Google Voice integration is now part of Google Hangouts, so it’s also integrated into Google+ and the Hangouts Chrome extension.
  
  

• Place and Receive Calls on Your Phone Over Wi-Fi

  Google doesn’t yet provide a way to send and receive calls from your phone over Wi-Fi, however, apps like GrooVe IP and Talkatone allow you to receive and place calls over a Wi-Fi or cellular data connection, no need for cell phone minutes.  You can also receive incoming calls through Google Hangouts through Wi-Fi or any broadband connection.
  
  

• Easy Number Portability

  Google Voice allows you to forward your calls to other numbers. Once you set this up and give everyone your Google Voice number, you’ll be able to more easily switch phones in the future. For example, if you move from one cellular carrier to another, you don’t have to go through the standard process of porting a cell phone number, you can just use the cell phone number assigned to the new phone and forward your main Google Voice number to it. Google also offers a way to port your existing phone number to Google Voice if you’d rather not give everyone your new Google Voice number. This is one of the few Google Voice features that costs money.
  
  

• Voicemail With Transcription

  Google Voice provides voicemail, but it doesn’t just give you a piece of audio to listen to. Google Voice uses Google’s advanced speech recognition technology to transcribe your voicemail, turning it into readable text. If Google Voice messes up the transcription or you’d just rather hear the original message, you can also listen to the attached audio file and your hpone or computer.
  
  

• Call Forwarding With Rules

  This service doesn’t just allow you to forward your calls to a single number. You can set up rules and priorities: automatically forwarding calls to your office phone during certain hours of the day and to your cell phone during the rest of the day, for example. You could also have Google Voice ring one phone and continue to other phones if you don’t answer. For example, it could call your home phone, work phone, and then cell phone in order if you don’t answer any of them.
  
  

• Switch Phones During a Call

  Because of the way Google Voice handles call forwarding, you can switch phones during a call. While on a call, press the * button on your phone and your other connected phones will ring. Pick one up and you can continue the call without hanging up, perfect if your cell phone is about to die or for switching between landline and cell phones on the go.
  
  
• Discount International Calls
  Make international call at very low rates, often just a few pennies per minute.
  
  

• Block Unwanted Callers

  Google Voice allows you to block calls from specific numbers. The caller will receive a “Number not in service” message when they call you, so this may even fool telemarketers into removing your phone number from their lists.
  
  
• Easy to Set up Conference Calls
  
  
• Record Calls
  

Things to Know About Google Voice:

• You may not be able to transfer (or "port") your Google number to some mobile carriers.
  
  
• Calls made through Google (with your Google number showing on outgoing Caller ID) are always completed as a VoIP call, if you have a data connection.  If you don't, the call cannot be completed through Google, you will need to choose the phone's own calling function and number.
  
  
• Text Messages are delivered and returned as an email, and only through GMail, which could cause a significant delay. You only use the phone's own Text Messaging function with that phone's number.
  
  
• You're never certain where Voice Mail is coming from: maybe from the carrier or maybe from Google Voice as an email.
  
  
• Google Voice has not been updated much.  We wonder if it will be supported in the future.

What You Need to Use Google Voice:

• Google Account
  
  
• Touch-Tone Phone
  You'll select a type for each phone you add to Google Voice: Mobile, Work, or Home. (Text messages will only be sent to phones listed as Mobile.)
  
  
• Computer, with Internet access
  
• Web browser: Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 8 and up, Firefox, Safari, Opera
• Flash 8 and up: Visit Adobe's Flash Player page to confirm you've downloaded Flash and what your version is.
  
  
• Optional: Google Voice app on Android or iOS
  
  
• Sign Up for Google Voice >
  
  

• Voicemail Like Email: 
  Save voicemail messages for as long as you'd like, star important ones, and search through them.
  
  
• Voicemail Transcription: 
  Voicemail messages will be automatically transcribed to text and forwarded to you via email and/or text message.
  
  
• Custom Voicemail Greetings: 
  Customize your voicemail greeting based on who is calling.
  
  
• International Calling: 
  Make low-priced international calls from the web or from your phone.
  
  
• To Sign Up for Google Voice Lite:
  Go to Google Voice, then select "I want to use my mobile number."