Google voice is genius.

I’m really ashamed that I haven’t jumped on this sooner.  I remember wanting to sign up for Google Voice a loonnngggggg time ago, and submitted a request, and then didn’t hear back for the longest, so it sort of fell off my radar.  I’m a devout Google follower with just about every other form of my online persona and digital organization (blogger, gmail, google chat, calendar, etc), so it’s a natural progression into the adoption of GV.

But I have to admit … I was a bit hesitant.  Did I really want to get ANOTHER phone number to memorize?  Was it worth it?  How will I use it?  I put off signing up for a long time while I debated these factors. 

I eventually decided to go all in, and get the new number, which I think is necessary if you want to use it for text messaging, which ended up being one of the main pulls, after I decided to nix my regular SMS plan.  I know I could end up rambling on and on about my experience, and how great it is, and I totally have drunk more of the google kool aid… but I’ll try to summarize some key points.

• New Number – not as bad as I envisioned.  I was able to choose a number, based on searching for a word or number series.  So I hand-picked my number, which is a local number for my town, and the last 4 are a meaningful numerical code that made it easy for me to remember.  And since, I’ve actually signed Jackson up for his own number as well, which is one digit off from mine.  Planning ahead ;) 
• One number to rule them all.  I’ve set up my GV with customized forwarding numbers for various days/times so I can pretty much be reached anywhere via the GV line – during the day, it rings my cell,home, and work.  In the evening and on weekends, it rings my cell and home numbers.  I think my mom likes having this simple way to find me, without calling a ton of numbers, and I’m already loving that I can give businesses, doctors, etc a number that I can always be reached on.  And I especially like the sense of security knowing that Jackson’s schools/caregivers can get me asap as well.
• Text messaging for free.  I’ve just within the last year really entered into the world of texting, and haven’t been a fan of paying for it.  GV iPhone app to the rescue!  Now I have folks text me on the GV number, it still comes in immediately to my phone, with the same pop up notification and sound alert.  The interface is easy to use, and no noticeable difference.  Love it.  It doesn’t support video or pic text, but I tend to do those via email anyway, so no issue for me.  And it’s $0.
• Web interface – Have I mentioned I’m not a big text-er??  What I really love about GV is that I can open up my account on the web, and manage/view calls and send/receive texts within my browser.  I’m much more text-friendly now that I can do it on the computer :)

There are tons of other features and customizable options --- call screening, customized greetings, voicemail transcription, and others.  For now, I’ve kept it simple, and it’s working great.  Highly recommend!