{"id":684,"date":"2009-12-24T21:29:58","date_gmt":"2009-12-25T04:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684"},"modified":"2009-12-24T21:35:42","modified_gmt":"2009-12-25T04:35:42","slug":"google-voice-why-its-awesome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684","title":{"rendered":"Google Voice &#8212; Why it&#8217;s AWESOME!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>About 2 years ago, I registered for Grand Central, which was at the time a free way to get a local Orlando phone number for my apartment gate call-box, since they didn&#8217;t allow long distance numbers.\u00a0 At that time, text messaging was too expensive on my plan, and I never really used it.\u00a0 Since then, I&#8217;ve gotten a work phone with unlimited texting, and I&#8217;ve gotten a text messaging plan on my personal phone.\u00a0 Keeping 2 phones on me at all times just seems silly, especially after 7pm, where unlimited calling is free on my work iPhone&#8230;.well Google has a solution for that.<\/p>\n<p>The basic idea behind <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/voice\" target=\"_blank\">Google Voice<\/a> is that you&#8217;re given 1 phone number, and it then forwards to virtually unlimited other phones.\u00a0 This is very handy for people like myself, as I can give out 1 number to all my friends, and then after 7pm forward it to my work phone, and during the day forward it to my personal cell phone.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A few handy features<\/strong>&#8211;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> You can set &#8220;Emergency Contacts&#8221; as a group and during work hours, set the &#8220;Do Not Disturb&#8221; feature so that no phone calls come through except a few close friends\/family who you can trust to only call you at work if it&#8217;s an absolute emergency.<\/li>\n<li>You can text via your computer keyboard if you&#8217;re at the computer and someone txt&#8217;s you.\u00a0 Much faster than using the phone.<\/li>\n<li>You can call your own phone number and then use that to make a call to avoid long distance fees.<\/li>\n<li>You can forward calls to the FREE Gizmo In, so that you don&#8217;t pay for minutes use when you&#8217;re near any computer with a high speed connection.<\/li>\n<li>You can block certain callers.<\/li>\n<li>If your minutes are running low, you can add your Google Voice number to your &#8220;My Circle&#8221; or unlimited calling plan, and all calls from this number won&#8217;t be charged for if you have Verizon or Tmobile&#8217;s free calling from xx different numbers.su<\/li>\n<li>Supports call screening.\u00a0 This is where you answer, and it says &#8220;__________ is calling, press 1 to receive, or hang up&#8221;.\u00a0 It forces callers to leave their name, so if it&#8217;s an unknown number, you know who it is before you talk to them.<\/li>\n<li>Voice Mail To Text &#8211; Converts voice mails into a text message so that you don&#8217;t have to listen to them. It&#8217;s not 100% accurate, but I almost always get the point of the message and don&#8217;t listen to them.<\/li>\n<li>Emailing Voice Mail &#8211; Voice Mail&#8217;s will be emailed to you in mp3 format so you can save them if you wish.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About 2 years ago, I registered for Grand Central, which was at the time a free way to get a local Orlando phone number for my apartment gate call-box, since they didn&#8217;t allow long distance numbers.\u00a0 At that time, text messaging was too expensive on my plan, and I never really used it.\u00a0 Since then, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[130,127,128,129],"class_list":["post-684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology-and-programming","tag-call-screening","tag-google-voice","tag-text-messaging","tag-voicemail-to-text"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 4.9.9 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"About 2 years ago, I registered for Grand Central, which was at the time a free way to get a local Orlando phone number for my apartment gate call-box, since they didn&#039;t allow long distance numbers. At that time, text messaging was too expensive on my plan, and I never really used it. Since then,\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Garrett\"\/>\n\t<meta name=\"keywords\" content=\"call screening,google voice,text messaging,voicemail to text,technology &amp; programming\" \/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 4.9.9\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Garrett&#039;s Blog | Software developer passionate about all things computer science, nature, and travel\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Google Voice \u2014 Why it\u2019s AWESOME! | James Garrett&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"About 2 years ago, I registered for Grand Central, which was at the time a free way to get a local Orlando phone number for my apartment gate call-box, since they didn&#039;t allow long distance numbers. At that time, text messaging was too expensive on my plan, and I never really used it. Since then,\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-12-25T04:29:58+00:00\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2009-12-25T04:35:42+00:00\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Google Voice \u2014 Why it\u2019s AWESOME! | James Garrett&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"About 2 years ago, I registered for Grand Central, which was at the time a free way to get a local Orlando phone number for my apartment gate call-box, since they didn&#039;t allow long distance numbers. At that time, text messaging was too expensive on my plan, and I never really used it. Since then,\" \/>\n\t\t<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"aioseo-schema\">\n\t\t\t{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?p=684#article\",\"name\":\"Google Voice \\u2014 Why it\\u2019s AWESOME! | James Garrett's Blog\",\"headline\":\"Google Voice &#8212; Why it&#8217;s AWESOME!\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?author=1#author\"},\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/#person\"},\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?p=684#articleImage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/dcc0cae12f663ca123ac5342af5dbcf38c469405e0fb3d5f59984199cdb04243?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"width\":96,\"height\":96,\"caption\":\"James Garrett\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-12-24T21:29:58-05:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-12-24T21:35:42-05:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?p=684#webpage\"},\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?p=684#webpage\"},\"articleSection\":\"Technology &amp; Programming, Call Screening, Google Voice, Text Messaging, Voicemail to text\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?p=684#breadcrumblist\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net#listItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\",\"nextItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?cat=6#listItem\",\"name\":\"Technology &amp; Programming\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?cat=6#listItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Technology &amp; Programming\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?cat=6\",\"nextItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?p=684#listItem\",\"name\":\"Google Voice &#8212; Why it&#8217;s AWESOME!\"},\"previousItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net#listItem\",\"name\":\"Home\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?p=684#listItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Google Voice &#8212; Why it&#8217;s AWESOME!\",\"previousItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?cat=6#listItem\",\"name\":\"Technology &amp; Programming\"}}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/#person\",\"name\":\"James Garrett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?p=684#personImage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/dcc0cae12f663ca123ac5342af5dbcf38c469405e0fb3d5f59984199cdb04243?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"width\":96,\"height\":96,\"caption\":\"James Garrett\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?author=1#author\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?author=1\",\"name\":\"James Garrett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?p=684#authorImage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/dcc0cae12f663ca123ac5342af5dbcf38c469405e0fb3d5f59984199cdb04243?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"width\":96,\"height\":96,\"caption\":\"James Garrett\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?p=684#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?p=684\",\"name\":\"Google Voice \\u2014 Why it\\u2019s AWESOME! | James Garrett's Blog\",\"description\":\"About 2 years ago, I registered for Grand Central, which was at the time a free way to get a local Orlando phone number for my apartment gate call-box, since they didn't allow long distance numbers. At that time, text messaging was too expensive on my plan, and I never really used it. Since then,\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/#website\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?p=684#breadcrumblist\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?author=1#author\"},\"creator\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/?author=1#author\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-12-24T21:29:58-05:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-12-24T21:35:42-05:00\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Garrett's Blog\",\"description\":\"Software developer passionate about all things computer science, nature, and travel\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jamesg.net\\\/#person\"}}]}\n\t\t<\/script>\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO -->\n\n","aioseo_head_json":{"title":"Google Voice \u2014 Why it\u2019s AWESOME! | James Garrett's Blog","description":"About 2 years ago, I registered for Grand Central, which was at the time a free way to get a local Orlando phone number for my apartment gate call-box, since they didn't allow long distance numbers. At that time, text messaging was too expensive on my plan, and I never really used it. Since then,","canonical_url":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684","robots":"max-image-preview:large","keywords":"call screening,google voice,text messaging,voicemail to text,technology &amp; programming","webmasterTools":{"miscellaneous":""},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684#article","name":"Google Voice \u2014 Why it\u2019s AWESOME! | James Garrett's Blog","headline":"Google Voice &#8212; Why it&#8217;s AWESOME!","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?author=1#author"},"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/#person"},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684#articleImage","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dcc0cae12f663ca123ac5342af5dbcf38c469405e0fb3d5f59984199cdb04243?s=96&d=mm&r=g","width":96,"height":96,"caption":"James Garrett"},"datePublished":"2009-12-24T21:29:58-05:00","dateModified":"2009-12-24T21:35:42-05:00","inLanguage":"en-US","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684#webpage"},"isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684#webpage"},"articleSection":"Technology &amp; Programming, Call Screening, Google Voice, Text Messaging, Voicemail to text"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684#breadcrumblist","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net#listItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jamesg.net","nextItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?cat=6#listItem","name":"Technology &amp; Programming"}},{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?cat=6#listItem","position":2,"name":"Technology &amp; Programming","item":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?cat=6","nextItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684#listItem","name":"Google Voice &#8212; Why it&#8217;s AWESOME!"},"previousItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net#listItem","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684#listItem","position":3,"name":"Google Voice &#8212; Why it&#8217;s AWESOME!","previousItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?cat=6#listItem","name":"Technology &amp; Programming"}}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/#person","name":"James Garrett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684#personImage","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dcc0cae12f663ca123ac5342af5dbcf38c469405e0fb3d5f59984199cdb04243?s=96&d=mm&r=g","width":96,"height":96,"caption":"James Garrett"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?author=1#author","url":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?author=1","name":"James Garrett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684#authorImage","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dcc0cae12f663ca123ac5342af5dbcf38c469405e0fb3d5f59984199cdb04243?s=96&d=mm&r=g","width":96,"height":96,"caption":"James Garrett"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684#webpage","url":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684","name":"Google Voice \u2014 Why it\u2019s AWESOME! | James Garrett's Blog","description":"About 2 years ago, I registered for Grand Central, which was at the time a free way to get a local Orlando phone number for my apartment gate call-box, since they didn't allow long distance numbers. At that time, text messaging was too expensive on my plan, and I never really used it. Since then,","inLanguage":"en-US","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/#website"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684#breadcrumblist"},"author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?author=1#author"},"creator":{"@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?author=1#author"},"datePublished":"2009-12-24T21:29:58-05:00","dateModified":"2009-12-24T21:35:42-05:00"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/","name":"James Garrett's Blog","description":"Software developer passionate about all things computer science, nature, and travel","inLanguage":"en-US","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/#person"}}]},"og:locale":"en_US","og:site_name":"James Garrett's Blog | Software developer passionate about all things computer science, nature, and travel","og:type":"article","og:title":"Google Voice \u2014 Why it\u2019s AWESOME! | James Garrett's Blog","og:description":"About 2 years ago, I registered for Grand Central, which was at the time a free way to get a local Orlando phone number for my apartment gate call-box, since they didn't allow long distance numbers. At that time, text messaging was too expensive on my plan, and I never really used it. Since then,","og:url":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684","article:published_time":"2009-12-25T04:29:58+00:00","article:modified_time":"2009-12-25T04:35:42+00:00","twitter:card":"summary","twitter:title":"Google Voice \u2014 Why it\u2019s AWESOME! | James Garrett's Blog","twitter:description":"About 2 years ago, I registered for Grand Central, which was at the time a free way to get a local Orlando phone number for my apartment gate call-box, since they didn't allow long distance numbers. At that time, text messaging was too expensive on my plan, and I never really used it. Since then,"},"aioseo_meta_data":{"post_id":"684","title":null,"description":null,"keywords":null,"keyphrases":null,"primary_term":null,"canonical_url":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"og_object_type":"default","og_image_type":"default","og_image_url":null,"og_image_width":null,"og_image_height":null,"og_image_custom_url":null,"og_image_custom_fields":null,"og_video":null,"og_custom_url":null,"og_article_section":null,"og_article_tags":null,"twitter_use_og":false,"twitter_card":"default","twitter_image_type":"default","twitter_image_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_fields":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"schema":{"blockGraphs":[],"customGraphs":[],"default":{"data":{"Article":[],"Course":[],"Dataset":[],"FAQPage":[],"Movie":[],"Person":[],"Product":[],"ProductReview":[],"Car":[],"Recipe":[],"Service":[],"SoftwareApplication":[],"WebPage":[]},"graphName":"","isEnabled":true},"graphs":[]},"schema_type":null,"schema_type_options":null,"pillar_content":false,"robots_default":true,"robots_noindex":false,"robots_noarchive":false,"robots_nosnippet":false,"robots_nofollow":false,"robots_noimageindex":false,"robots_noodp":false,"robots_notranslate":false,"robots_max_snippet":null,"robots_max_videopreview":null,"robots_max_imagepreview":"large","priority":null,"frequency":null,"location":null,"local_seo":null,"breadcrumb_settings":null,"limit_modified_date":false,"ai":null,"created":"2020-12-24 13:43:46","updated":"2025-06-07 03:01:08","seo_analyzer_scan_date":null},"aioseo_breadcrumb":"<div class=\"aioseo-breadcrumbs\"><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/jamesg.net\" title=\"Home\">Home<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb-separator\">&raquo;<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?cat=6\" title=\"Technology &amp; Programming\">Technology &amp; Programming<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb-separator\">&raquo;<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\tGoogle Voice \u2014 Why it\u2019s AWESOME!\n\t\t<\/span><\/div>","aioseo_breadcrumb_json":[{"label":"Home","link":"https:\/\/jamesg.net"},{"label":"Technology &amp; Programming","link":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?cat=6"},{"label":"Google Voice &#8212; Why it&#8217;s AWESOME!","link":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/?p=684"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=684"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":691,"href":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions\/691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesg.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}