So I got my google voice invite last week and have been playing around with the voice service nonstop. It is probably the greatest thing i’ve ever laid my hands on. Google Voice is almost like AOL’s old telephone service where as they assign a number and calls made to that number will be redirected to you. Pretty much it but, Google voice is far more superior.

A quickstep-to-notice feature

Your phone number. Your number can be chose by you once you login. It’ll display a box asking you to fill in a desired number and if it’s available, it’s yours. It doesn’t get any better than that does it? Even some mobile cellphone company’s won’t allow you to choose your own phone number. Upon accepting your invite, you’ll also receive .10 cents credit for international calls.

The interface

Google Voice, The simplest interface for telephone on the web.

Sleek, simple. Easy to navigate and I promise you, you’ll learn it within minutes. You can send SMS messages right there through the website, check voicemail, and even add credits to your accounts (for international call- more in a bit).

The service

Expect no more, and no less from Google. When a person makes a call to your Google Voice number, their number will show up on a caller id through the phone you chose to forward your call to. Upon picking up, a google voice operator (more of a bot) will ask if you want to accept or reject the call from the number. Now that’s an even better feature. So just in case you’re used to giving out “fake” numbers on dates, you can give them your Google Voice number and you’d have the peace you’ve always wanted.

More Features

Ability to enable “Do Not Disturb” which rejects all calls to your google voice number.

When someone leaves a voicemail, Google will automatically transcribe the voicemail into texts and have it available for you to read, just in case you don’t feel like listening to a certain someone…

Stalkers no more…Anyone who try to call you through a blocked/unknown number will be asked to say their names. Another plus for google voice, another 10$ for any other mobile company who adds this feature.

There are lots of features still i’ve yet to mentioned, but those are the basic. Upon locking in a number, make sure it’s a number you’re comfortable with because, unless you’d like to pay 10$ to change it, I’d suggest you pick the one that you really like at first.