Google Voice(mail) is nifty!
I finally got a Google Voice invite, and set it up on my Droid. I used the ‘keep your old number’ option, which means it only changes my voice mail functions. I don’t have multiple phone lines I need consolidated, so going the ‘new number’ route seemed excessive.
But, even as just the voice mail, it’s great!
First, it displays a visual voice mail list of recent voice mails. And shows (poorly, computer-generated) transcripts, which is cool, but not horribly helpful. It also allows you to see the transcripts, and listen to voice mail, online. But the visual voice mail display and navigation, totally integrated within Android after downloading the Google Voice app, is GREAT!
In theory, I should get invites to let other people get in on the fun. I don’t have any right now, but I only registered a few hours ago. Lemme know if you’d like an invite and, if/when I get any, I’ll send ‘em your way.
On a slightly unrelated note, I think I figured out why my Droid kept killing calls, putting people on speaker phone, hitting keys, etc. (Basically, why it was letting the touch screen turn on during phone calls.) The sensor to check whether or not the phone is at your ear is in the upper-left corner of the screen, not the upper-right, as I’d previously thought. Adjusting how I held the phone, coupled with snipping off the piece of screen protector covering the sensor, seems to have elimnated the “why can’t my fucking phone be a good phone?!” problems I’ve been having.
Hopefully, anyway…
Themocracy
I got my google voice invite like a ridiculously long time ago (whenever it came out first) but I haven’t used it much except for two phone calls I rec’d to my “new” number that weren’t remotely meant for me. I have yet to see a good use for it. Then again I have an iphone and apple and google HATE each other.. so perhaps that’s why. It’s not remotely integrated.
They’ve recently done something where, when you’re signing up for a new account, you can do the full Google Voice account with a new phone number, or just change your voicemail. But iPhone has visual voicemail already, right? That was the big reason I bothered to set this up.