Fone Forum

Google has upgraded its GrandCentral service to a new offering called Google Voice (http://www.grandcentral.com/), in a direct attack against internet and traditional telephony services.

Google Voice takes the existing GrandCentral service, which consolidates landlines and mobile numbers into a single phone number with voicemail, and adds the ability to make free domestic calls, transcribe voice mails and allow conference calls for up to six participants.

"The new application improves the way you use your phone," said the company in a blog posting (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/here-comes-google-voice.html).  "You can get transcripts of your voicemail and archive and search all the text messages you send and receive.  You can also use the service to make low-priced international calls and easily access Goog-411 directory assistance."

The move is bound to worry internet telephony providers such as Skype (http://www.skype.com/), but will also affect traditional providers by offering services for free that constitute a major part of their revenue streams.

Google acquired GrandCentral in July 2007 (http://www.vnunet.com/itweek/news/2193500/google-buys-skype), but has done little to develop the service until now.  Existing GrandCentral users can use Google Voice immediately, and the application will be opened up to new users in the next few weeks.

Source:-   vnunet.com (http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2238370/google-takes-telecommunications).

They've been sending reminders about upgrading Grand Central accounts to Google Voice, and apparently the last day to be able to do so is tomorrow, so here's an extra reminder if anyone here needs it.

I've just done mine, but don't ask me loads of questions about using it, as I haven't done much yet. It's still aimed mainly at US users

Interestingly, I just sent a trial text message to my O2 UK phone, and it arrived within seconds. I thought I'd read that only US numbers were supported so far, but was I getting mixed up with another service (maybe Gizmo)?

talking of Gizmo, there are useful ways to combine this with GV, call forwarding to other SIP accounts (I think) and so on, but I'm (not yet) a beginner at that as well ...

Hi andy,

For the sake of members who don't know what a Grand central account is, please will you kindly explain.

Does on get one with a gmail account, or how ?

It has had features like voicemail, free call forwarding (to US numbers only so far) and so on

Google Voice has more facilities, though again people outside the US might not see it as all that useful. For example, US mobile users could install an application and get free callback to their phone to make outgoing calls. And as I read suggested elsewhere, with judicious forwarding set up in advance, this might be used with other phones such as a callbox, for a very low data use per call trigger

Here is Google's explanation of what you can do with it
http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

I think using the GV number with Gizmo to forward free to SIP accounts is possibly a quite useful idea for some people, and there are probably ways to get to Skype accounts with a paid Gizmo subscription, but is it worth it ...

But as I already suggested, my GC account was next to dormant so far, and I've only just signed up in GV. My impression is it could become very useful, but they aren't quite sure what to do with it, or whether to expand outside USA, and it's up to the customers to figure out a lot of the more subtle possibilities