Google Voice wants to be the center of your voice communications. The Web-based service combines a lot of things: a permanent follow-around phone number; voice mail with transcriptions; and text messaging, to name a few. What it lacks—consistently high call quality, full recording capabilities, flawless conferencing and transcription—prevents it from being truly comprehensive. But that's just for now. And it's so close as it is that it earns our Editors' Choice for a unified messaging solutionThe central feature of Google Voice is the single, permanent, virtual phone number. When called, that number simultaneously rings any or all of your physical (and verified) phones. The feature is just about perfect at what it does.
Also part of the package are outbound, Internet-based calls. The service isn't PC-based like Skype, though the calls are placed via the Web interface. Enter a number in the Call dialog box, tell it which of your phones to ring, and click Connect. Answer your phone when it rings, then Google Voice calls the outgoing number for you. The dialog box ties to the anemic Google Contacts, the same contact list you have in Gmail. Start typing a name to autocomplete who you want to call. You never have to touch your phone to dial. (Right now, there's no way to port an existing phone number to Google Voice. But the rumor is that portability is coming soon.)
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This service is free within the contiguous 48 states, but calls elsewhere will cost you. Every trial Google Voice user gets $1 in credit, which you'll need to call Hawaii (2 cents per minute) or Alaska (4 cents per minute), Canada (1 cent per minute), and Mexico (8 cents per minute). Other rates vary, but are always cheaper than through the phone company. You can replenish credit for Google Voice via a Google Checkout account.
If there's a downside to the calls, it's that they are based on voice over IP (VoIP). If you use a VoIP service like Vonage, then use Google Voice to call someone on a cell phone in a weak area, that's a lot of hops on the Internet and wireless towers—and the lag is noticeable. But I've never had a call so bad in quality I couldn't get through it.
Calling out will display your Google Voice number on the recipient's caller ID, but old-fashioned phone-to-phone calls will show your regular phone's number, not the Google Voice number you want to be ubiquitous. At least one third-party iPhone app, GV Mobile, makes outbound calls look like they come from Google Voice.
Google Voice's Web interface is very reminiscent of Gmail. The inbox lists all the messages and recorded conversations. You can star important items to find later, delete what you don't need, and even report voice mail spam. Click the history link to get a full account of every call in and out, including when it was made and its duration. Drop-down menus provide fast access to returning calls or sending texts. (The inbox is accessible on mobile phones via www.google.com/voice/m/.)
When a call comes in, you have the choice of answering directly, sending it to voice mail, ignoring it entirely, or answering and recording it. Hit the 4 key any time during a call to record. An automated voice will always alert both parties when you start recording, so you can't get away with anything. Recording doesn't work with outgoing calls. All recordings can be played back on the Web or downloaded as MP3 files. You can embed a player in a Gmail message or on a Web page (just as you would a YouTube video).
Google Voice's voice mail transcription is spotty. Simple messages, with just a name and number, are no problem. But longer or low-volume messages are a tad more difficult. It's fascinating to play back a message and watch the transcription highlight areas of text where it recognizes its own shortcomings, but you can't use that feature to improve future transcriptions. And it's disappointing that the system won't transcribe your recorded phone calls. Regardless, a full ten-digit number shows up in the transcription as a link you can click to easily call back.
Up to four people can be conferenced on a single call as long as they all call your Google Voice number and you're on a standard phone with CallerID and a flash button. This works well in perfect circumstances, when you have time to answer each call and hit the 5 key to conference everyone in. But if more than one person calls at a time you get chaos—plus a lot of voice mails asking what's going on.
It's only natural in this day of ubiquitous text messaging that a service like Google Voice should support SMS. With a drop-down dialog box similar to that used to make outgoing calls, you enter a phone number, or pick one from Google Contacts' autocomplete list. Type in your 160 characters and send out the message. The recipient will see that it came from your Google Voice number. Replies go directly to your Google Voice inbox—in fact, the inbox will hold entire SMS conversations, echoing the abilities of Gmail. Replies can be CCed to your cell phone; they'll appear to have come from a number with a 406 area code number, because Google uses a swath of unused numbers from Montana.
Despite its shortcomings, Google Voice is pretty fantastic as a personal switchboard. As it's another perpetual beta product, expect those deficiencies to eventually be addressed. If you've already given yourself over to Google for contacts, calendar, e-mail and more, this is just one more step—and you'll likely find yourself happy with the result.
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