[devonair]

...so it looks like Google Voice finally opened up, but now that I have it what are some cool things that I can do with it? Any other Pre users taking advantage of the service? If so, how well does it integrate with your existing Pre workflow?

[hrminer92]

The main thing that I use it for is to route one phone number to multiple different phone numbers (work, home, cell) so I can pick up whichever one is most convenient. That is so I can just give one number to my relatives. Sure I could just give them my cell, but if I'm at my desk or at home, I won't be using up minutes on my cell plan. It's also a way to get 'visual voicemail' for my computer. I haven't tried it from my Pre yet.

The contacts are the same as Gmail, so they're already being synced.

[PalmOD]

How does SMS work with Google Voice? (I just upgraded also)

[trim81]

Google voice is open for new users?

[gmk]

Buy a Linksys Pap2 VOIP router sign up for a free Gizmo5 account and then cancel your home phone service.

[The_strain]

what is google voice? and i've heard you can't set your own ringtone from your music list is that true?

[Loonytunes212]

It is still invite only. Not open to the public. You still cant port your number.

[BlaqkAudio]

I wish Sprint would let us forward calls for free. Then I would definitely sign up for Google Voice

[bartman0531]

agreed, I have to carry around two phones, my personal and one for work and I hate it. Seeing how I have SEP I wish I could forward all my work calls to my cell.

I still don't think I understand exactly how Google voice works. Will I be able to do this once it goes public?

[PascalSijen]

I have been using Google Voice, and before that GrandCentral, for almost 2-years. Google Voice works really well, but only if you are willing to commit to only giving out your Google Voice number. Once all of your friends, family, co-workers, business contacts, etc. have your number, it becomes a very powerful tool: You can, for example, have custom greetings for certain contacts, block certain numbers, screen calls, transfer calls, have your calls routed to more than one of your phones at the same time (home, work, cell, etc), have specific rules for certain contacts or groups of contact, and the list goes on and on...

You can find out more by following this link:
google.com/support/voice/]Google Voice Help
(can't post links, don't have enough posts)

[leftyman]

In 30 days (getting rid of my landline) that will be my "home number" for people I dont want to have my cell number.

[PascalSijen]

In 30 days (getting rid of my landline) that will be my "home number" for people I dont want to have my cell number.

Personally, I would recommend you use your Google Voice number for all of your contacts. You can then, using caller ID, determine how those calls are handled, routed, etc.

Cheers!

[leftyman]

Personally, I would recommend you use your Google Voice number for all of your contacts. You can then, using caller ID, determine how those calls are handled, routed, etc.

Cheers!

Ive thought about it..there are plenty of options as to how you want to handle calls and I particularly like the text notifications...

[PascalSijen]

Ive thought about it..there are plenty of options as to how you want to handle calls and I particularly like the text notifications...

I only recently started using it is my primary number. Although I had used GrandCentral for a long time, I never had enough confidence in it to make it my primary number. However, in the last couple months, since it was relaunched as Google Voice, I have decided to use it as my only / main phone number for (personal and business). Up until this point, Google Voice / GrandCentral was interesting, but once the change was made, it became much more powerful and useful.

Cheers!

[heberman]

I've set mine up so that friends and family continue to be forwarded to my cell number after 6:00 pm. All other calls get routed to voicemail.

[eddieroger]

I signed up with GrandCentral when it was in beta (and they were in active development - a long time ago), and I use it as my "home" number after moving for work. Everyone I know still has my cell phone with my old area code, so my GVoice number is what I give to have a local number up here, and it either forwards to my cell or work phone, depending on time of day (no work at night) and incoming number.

I second the wish to have Sprint forward calls for free. I'd rather have one big inbox than voicemail on my phone. Plus, when Google Wave rolls out, I see this, GMail and GTalk all merging in to one communications nirvana.

[ADGrant]

agreed, I have to carry around two phones, my personal and one for work and I hate it. Seeing how I have SEP I wish I could forward all my work calls to my cell.

I still don't think I understand exactly how Google voice works. Will I be able to do this once it goes public?

You can forward calls now without Google Voice. Just forward your work cell to your home cell.

[Samsara]

I loved using GV on T-mobile, where they effectively gave me free conditional forwarding. I never had to give anyone a new phone number. Rather than going to my Tmo voicemail, callers would get sent to GV for proper screening. Of course, for people I knew, I would simply answer the phone before it ever got that far. It did make for a lot of excess ringing, though.

With Sprint's lousy policy, I've been wrestling with the idea of making GV my primary number. It wouldn't actually be that difficult for me, but it concerns me that my GV number died for a couple of hours during that big Google outage a couple of months ago. As far as I know, though, that was the only outage in my 2 years with them.

[jhoff80]

I have to agree that if I had free conditional forwarding with Sprint I'd use this much more often.

As it is now, I have an account I haven't used in months.

[poopsie#IM]

There are two problems for me with it:

1) Your caller id shows up as your Sprint number, not the Google Voice. This can be corrected by using a dialer, but it just seems sloppy.

2) Any texts you send from your phone show your Sprint number.

If those were corrected somehow, I would use it religiously.