June 8, 2010, 03:00 PM ET

An Introduction to Google Voice

Two weeks ago Google announced that users with .edu email addresses will now get priority access to Google Voice. Educational users still must request an invitation to the service's closed beta, but Google promises that .edu users will receive their invitations within 24 hours of requesting them (rather than the indeterminate time that other users must wait). Though this promotion is aimed primarily at students, it's also very good news for most readers of ProfHacker.

[NOTE: All of the images below are linked to larger versions.]

So what is Google Voice (GV)? It's not a VOIP service like Skype, meaning you can't use GV directly to make calls over the internet. You can send free text messages through GV,

and make cheap international calls by dialing through GV's web interface (which then connects to one of your own phones):

But GV is better used as a personal switchboard and virtual secretary. Your GV number routes calls to all of the other phones in your life. It routes calls differently based on who calls it, giving you lots of control over your availability while allowing you to be widely available.

One Phone to Rule Them All

When you first log into GV, you'll be prompted to enter the phone numbers that you want GV to route calls to. You'll give each number a name that will help you identify it. Under "advanced settings," you can tell GV whether to ring that number on the weekends, during the week, or both—or whether to use a custom availability schedule, in which you can define the days and times that number should ring. I have two phones—my iPhone and my office phone. By default, when someone calls my GV number during the week between 8am and 6pm, both of these phones will ring, and I can answer from whichever is most convenient. On the weekends and at night, however, my office phone doesn't ring.

These initial choices hint at the fine level of control GV gives you over incoming phone calls. In addition to rules based on day of the week, GV also allows you to create custom rules for separate groups of contacts. GV shares contacts with other Google apps, so if you're a regular Gmail user then you'll likely already have a few defined contact groups. Perhaps you want calls from your family to ring your home, mobile, and office phones—simply tell GV that calls from phone numbers in your "Family" contact group should ring all of your phones. Perhaps you'd like calls from unknown numbers sent directly to voicemail—that's also simple to set up. You can tell GV to screen calls (allowing you to listen as callers begin leaving a message) by default, to only screen unknown numbers, or to screen calls from certain groups of contacts. In short, GV allows you to be as accessible as you want to be based on who's calling.

So how might this help on campus? A few weeks ago George described how to use Google Docs Forms to collect information from students and then import that contact information into Google Contacts. After doing this, you could configure GV so that when a student from one of your classes called you, GV would ring only your office number. If a student called outside of the times that numer is available (or if you couldn't pick up the phone), then they'd be forwarded to your GV voicemail.

GV allows you to record custom voicemail greetings for separate contact groups. I've created a custom greeting for students in which I detail the information I'd like them to include with their messages: "This is Professor Cordell. Please state your name and the course you're currently taking with me before beginning your message." You could record separate greetings for colleagues, friends, members of professional organizations, etc. Recording these greetings is easy—GV can use your computer's internal microphone—so you could change these as frequently as you wanted in order to include timely information, such as reminders about deadlines or upcoming events.

Get All of Your Messages in One Place

This leads to a killer feature of GV: voicemail transcription. When callers leave you a voicemail, GV automatically transcribes the message and puts it in your inbox, which looks a lot like Gmail.

These transcriptions aren't perfect (which you can see in the example above), but GV highlights sections of text it's less sure of, and the transcription is usually more than sufficient for you to figure out:

who called
what they were calling about
how urgently they need a reply.

This allows you to manage your response based on the urgency of the message. (In another post, George raised the idea of calling your own GV number and leaving a message in order to transcribe a few paragraphs of text—he also linked to Google's video describing how their transcription works.)

If you activate email notifications,then GV will forward a transcript of each new voicemail you receive to you as an email.

Embedded in the email will be the sound file of the voicemail itself, in case the transcription isn't clear enough. You can also activate email forwarding for text messages. I set GV to forward both voicemails and text messages to my email (which I check more often, honestly, than my phone messages). Were a student to call me in the middle of the night, none of my phones would ring (because of the group settings I described above), but I would receive an email transcribing the student's message. If the message was urgent enough to warrant immediate attention, then I could act on it.

Being Widely Available

Because GV gives me such control over what happens when people call me, I feel more comfortable publishing the number widely. Before GV I didn't give my phone number to students—I didn't want calls about assignments during dinner. Because I can customize when my phones will ring through GV, I've started giving students a number to call or text, so they can contact me however is most convenient for them without infringing on my privacy. I could achieve a similar effect by giving students my office phone number (which I wouldn't answer if I wasn't there), but GV consolidates all of my messages in one place, so that I don't have 2-3 separate voicemails to check. With voicemail transciption and emailing, I can find out about especially urgent calls before I get into the office the next day.

GV also makes me more accessible to wider circles of aquaintances: my GV number is on my business cards for conferences, and there's a GV widget on my website. Giving out a GV number that routes to my home, mobile, or office phone numbers keeps those latter three numbers private. A GV number can always be changed, if necessary, for a $10 fee.

Bonus Tip: Moving (or Multiple Residences)

GV may also offer a solution for academics who, because of a job situation or a distant partner, need to have a local number in two area codes. I'm currently moving to start a new faculty position, and I'm using GV to make the transition between Virginia and Wisconsin easier. A few weeks ago, I switched my GV number from a local Virginia number to a local Wisconsin number. I've been putting my new number on all the paperwork I've been filling out for my new institution, new utilities, and etc. That new GV number forwards to my old Virginia mobile phone. In other words, folks in Virginia still have a local number with which to contact me, but so do folks in Wisconsin. Once we're settled in Wisconsin, I'll switch the mobile number, but in the meantime I can have a local number in both locations.

[Creative Commons licensed photo by Flickr user Save vs Death.]

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Comments

1. peril - June 08, 2010 at 03:57 pm

Google voice and I have been friends for... well sense it was Grand Central and Google bought them.

It's only real noteworthy limitation is not being able to send / receive pix messages- but Google insists they are working on it.

As suggested, the best use for Google Voice is, as a teacher, being able to group your student contacts. Then using rules, set up times when calls from students will ring your phone, and when the wont. It's like having an invisible gatekeeper that prevents your students from calling you at 3am, during a meeting, or after they are out of your class. You can set custom voice mail messages for rules, students, or times as well. This is nice because you can customize Class A's message to "Final papers due Tuesday, if you have questions please leave a message" and Class B will get a different message avoiding confusion.

For anyone using FireFox (Mac and PC) there is a great plug-in that renders any standard format phone number of a web page into a clickable link that automatically dials the number via your Voice account: http://thatsmith.com/2009/03/google-voice-add-on-for-firefox

For those of us that use Macs here's a good Dashboard widget: http://homepage.mac.com/aamann/DashBoard.html

And if you really want to set up Voice to it's best possible configuration on your Mac, you need it to work with Growl, auto refresh, and function as it's own app, for this, I use Fluid:
http://fluidapp.com/ Fluid makes Mac apps out of websites :) (Internet connection still required)

With Growl installed (great notifier tool: http://growl.info/ Growl is supported by the vast majority of Mac apps, and a few greasemonkey scripts from userscripts.org we can get this rolling quickly.

Open Fluid and make a new App (this part is pretty painless, on launch fluid just asks you for the URL of the site specific browser you want to create, enter http://voice.google.com). Then give it a meaningful name, I chose "Google Voice" ;)
Make the Location your Applications folder.
And when it says Icon: the default is the web site's icon, but that's rubbish, you'll find a better one here: http://www.iconspedia.com/icon/google-voice--76-.html

Now hit "Create" - that's it, you've made a Google Voice App! Now to get the extra features:

To avoid a few bugs open your new Google Voice app and select "Preferences" from the menu bar, then the "Advanced" category. Under "Allowed URLs," hit the "+" button and add *google.com/voice*, asterisks included.

Now, in your Google Voice address bar (which you can hide later for the sake of making your App feel less like a browser and more like an app) enter these two URLs and when prompted choose "Install"
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/50521
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/53723
(You may have to press the big green "Install" button depending on your setup, this is not a problem)

TaDa! That's all folks, now you've got a Google Voice app that refreshes itself (leave it running, if you want the window to go away just minimize it, closing the window means the refresh / notify scripts wont run) and lets you know when you've got txt's and/or voicemail.

For those of you that have iPhones you may be aware that Apple denied Google's iPhone app. There are two ways to get it though:

1- you can find the app in Cydia, the jailbraker's app store. It works brilliantly and I would recommend getting it. You can jailbreak your iPhone (or iPod touch if you want to use Voice on your touch) by using the Spirit Jailbreak app: http://spiritjb.com/
then search Cydia for Google Voice.
### Remember to install OpenSSH and change your default password to something other that "Alpine" for security###

2- Google has a web app that's... ok for the most part, get it here:http://www.google.com/mobile/voice/ Visit that URL in your iPhone / iPod touch.
Unfortunately this webapp doesn't support Push notifications. However, if you have the Fluid app, you can install Prowl (iPhone Growl) http://itunes.apple.com/app/prowl-growl-client/id320876271?mt=8
Which will send a push notification to your phone / touch when your desktop registers a new txt / voice mail.

I hope this helps, if anyone wants more info post a comment or shoot me an email. If anyone is interested in a full writeup of these hacks let me know :)

~ Peril
drperil.com

2. moacir - June 08, 2010 at 05:15 pm

Should be noted that Google Voice is limited to US phones and things. I can use the web page to SMS a storm from abroad to US numbers (and receive SMSes), which is nice, but dialing from the webpage primes my phone to make an international call to the US.

This isn't a surprise; Google warned me, and I had to be in the US to even activate the system. But it'll be cooler once it magically works on international numbers, too.

Thanks for the tips.

3. hmwhitney - June 08, 2010 at 05:44 pm

I got a Google Voice account for my new town when I moved recently, and it's been great to use for a local number but without the hassle of changing cell phone numbers (and updating all my contacts.) The voicemail-to-text-message feature is fantastic.

4. professor_luddite - June 09, 2010 at 03:44 pm

Is it worth noting that the best way to stop students from calling at 3am or during dinner is to give out only the office number (and, of course, opt not to be in the office at 3am or during dinner)?

I would suggest that an "urgent" call from a student over the weekend or overnight is most likely a call from a student who has procrastinated contacting me until the night before an assignment is due. While this may be the most convenient time for him or her, it's not for me. This is why I give out only my office phone number and tell students that I don't check it very often--and only during regular business hours.

I agree that Google Voice sounds kind of neat, but I also feel that students should be responsible for checking in with me in a timely and responsible manner, and in such a way that won't require calling at 3 AM. If something unforseen happens, like a car accident, they can contact me afterward.

If we pretend to be preparing our students for the "real world" (or whatever post-college vision you prefer), then in what positions is supervisor available 24/7? Shouldn't we be training our students to exercise foresight and planning?

5. ryancordell - June 09, 2010 at 04:40 pm

I totally agree, professor_luddite. I don't advertise to my students that the number I've given them is a Google Voice number, and that it will email me transcripts of messages left at 3 am. That's a feature that I find convenient. I'm not awake at 3 am, but I prefer to get the 3 am message in my email box when I check it the next morning rather than negotiating the college's labyrinthian message system.

I only guarantee on my syllabi that I will respond to email and telephone calls within 48 hours, which makes it clear that I won't be sitting at my computer ready to assist with paper 6 hours before they're due.

I like GV because it helps me control my availability, but others might not like getting messages forwarded.

6. ryancordell - June 09, 2010 at 04:42 pm

I should also add that I like having a "unified inbox" for my voicemail. Just as I use apple's mail to manage all of my email--work, personal, etc.--I like having all of my voicemail come into GV, instead of using a separate voicemail system for home, mobile, and work.

7. peril - June 09, 2010 at 06:01 pm

@Prf Luddite,
Normally I don't reply like this, but I feel like something should be said:

Not sure if you're serious or just playing the Devil's advocate, but I do see your point. However, your logic is flawed: the idea is not to be more available (though, it probably should be), the idea is to channel student communications in a way that makes your life easier.

Giving out your office phone only means that students wont call your cell. If you want some time in your office to think, I suppose you could just unplug your phone... or you could have Google Voice send the call right to voice mail then listen (or read) the message at your leasure. Along those same lines, your office phone doesn't send you transcripts like Ryancordell finds easier to use, it isn't flexible, and it wont filter students.

You can have Google Voice ring as many phones as you like, or as few. So there's no reason why you can't connect it only to your office phone, and then use it's call filtering tools to address different classes with different voice mail messages, to block old students or those who leave inappropriate messages, etc. The only phone it rings is your office so your current answering rules are still valid, but now you have more access to what messages may have been left. You're free to check on your computer, your phone, or even your iPod- whatever you like, when you like it.

Teaching preparedness and foresight is one thing, but let's be honest for a moment: it's not the real world yet is it? Outright dismissal of tools that could make communication with your students easier (for you or for them) says "My students are in my way" more than "This tool isn't useful."

Even if you don't use the advanced multi-phone features Google Voice adds simple and powerful tools to your phone that can make your life easier. Try it, you might like it :) If it's more than you want to deal with fine, but let's not pretend like better communication is tantamount to coddling students.

8. toddstanfield - June 15, 2010 at 04:38 am

Google Voice has helped tremendously in creating boundaries between my personal and professional time. I not only use it as an emergency line for students, but also for a way to text (SMS) students without using my personal cell phone number. I have found that the quickest way to reach a student about a pressing issue (I am turning in grades and I don't see your paper anywhere) is to text them.

I think Google Voice works best as one piece of a larger strategy for managing communication with students. I have found that sharing my contact expectations with students helps them understand what we can expect from each other. I keep that written description here: http://stanfield.pbworks.com/contact-expectations