Those of you who closely follow tech news know that there have been quite uproar lately over Google Voice apps on the iPhone which were allowed initially, but now they’re banned. Apple may have made some poor decisions about Google Voice on the iPhone, but if you are still curious about integration between your iPhone and Google Voice, the Google Voice Speed Dial Bookmarklet generator is definitely a useful option for several iPhone users.

The iPhone user (or you) must point the iPhone to http://www.ironicsans.com/gv/ and follow the instructions where a little digging in Voice account to get the proper credentials for the bookmarklet to work is essential. Next, enter in your Google Voice code obtained from above including, your iPhone number and the number of the persons that you intend to call according to your preferences. Now, you need to hit Generate and then the tool will dish out a few more instructions that you will need to follow in order to integrate between iPhone and Google Voice. Finally, you will have a quick-dial bookmark in mobile Safari that you can hit to speed dial specific contacts much faster than going through the mobile Google Voice site. Google Voice, allows you to organize your contacts as Safari bookmarks.

The process of setting up the first phone number takes a few more steps, but after that the rest are easy as you will not have to take the trouble to add everyone from your Address Book, but it’s easy to set up a “Google Voice Faves” folder with all your most-called people. You can arrange them in folders and then dialing from your bookmarks is as simple as dialing from your normal Contacts app where you just tap to dial the required contact or number easily without hindrances. It is a pretty huge task adding all the contacts, but for frequently used numbers it is indeed a great idea that works very well.

The integration between iPhone and Google Voice has worked out well for me though; I have not tested this on other iPhone users. I am confident it will work for you as well as it works for me with a great deal of success. I think it will work equally well as a desktop bookmarklet, thereby making the iPhone a lot more compatible with Google Voice now.

I am glad that I was part of the Google Voice Fiasco by AT&T and the criticism and complaints from customers pushed the topic up even on Twitter.

When AT&T was first asked about the Google Voice application it did not deign fit to comment on the topic. However after the outcry Glen Lurie of AT&T had given an explanation that AT&T does not run the App store and therefore concerns should be expressed to Apple.

This is a ty pical instance of AT&T hiding behind Apple’s apron. In the first case why was the app approved by Apple if it has to be questioned for the removal?

Why did AT&T act so high and mighty when it was questioned?

Surely, there is nothing wrong in the relations between Apple and Google. But then even Apple should not and cannot take its customers and Google for granted. Every One knows whom to point the finger at.

The smart phone arena will no more be Apple’s exclusive perch with competition playing the catching up game. There is Android and Microsoft throwing their might behind mobile OS. Even Nokia is working hard on Symbian.

You cannot trample on customers’ sentiment and yet hope to retain the base.

May be Google should wake up and put AT&T in its place that a carrier should be a mere carrier.

Tweaking custom calling rules in Google Voice (GV) is a killer app that allows you to keep one phone number, but have it route to multiple phones according to your preferences.  GV helps you to save money, avoid annoyances and get more. GV enables you to have at least your cell phone set up with the service, under a new number. The procedure is pretty easy where you add a new phone number by clicking on “Settings” in the upper-right corner, then hit the “Phones” tab and click “Add another phone.”

Templates for customizing calling rules

• Cell minute saver: allows you to have your other phones (at home or office) ring at the same time when your cell minutes are  tracked by the minute. You can set your land phones from ringing according to your time preferences or whenever your cell plan goes “free” and when you are free to take the calls probably, during weekends or when you are at home or office.
• Whitelisting: Google Voice provides pretty good caller ID and you can easily ignore a call by having unrecognized callers go right to voice mail.

  Google Voice also provides other default options for every caller in its settings: “Do Not Disturb,” which sends every call to voice mail and doesn’t forward text messages.
  

• Mumblers and  speed-talkers: There are times when  Google can’t  understand what certain folks in your voice mail are trying to say and some really impatient people leave empty voice mails. So, you need to go to Contacts and move everybody who tends to talk softly, quickly or not at all into a group or select them individually and change their greeting to a custom version where you name it “Transcription Reminder” and record a custom greeting.
• Formal or informal greetings: GV enables you to go to  Settings, then Groups where you click “Edit” under any contact group that should get a longer, more professional greeting (for example, You’ve reached the voice mail of Dr. Deen and your call is very important to me ….) or make that the default message. As for your  friends and family you must set up a short message to save on their cell minutes and patience as well.

There are lots of resources that explain how Google Voice’s features work and manage the callers for a better overall phone experience. I am trying to help you to know how to go about actually using Google Voice (GV).

The Psychology of Number Transitioning

Google Voice can be your universal phone hub with everybody calling it. You need to call your cell phone voice mail number and head into the options to record a new voice mail and list your new number. There are some folks who just don’t want to edit their contact lists and others feel like they can catch you quicker if they’ve got your direct line. You may ignore their calls and call them back from your Google Voice number, through the Google Voice web site or by calling your Google Voice number from your standard phone and dialing them from there.

Note: The ease of number transitioning in Google Voice comes with its share of kinks. You can avoid them with Google Voice apps for smart phones including, like GV for Android and GV Mobile for iPhones.

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There’s a variable amount of audio delay when routing calls through Google Voice.

Group Settings

Also you need to form your groups including, your parents, spouse, siblings, best friends, business partners and other VIPs can probably call anytime and you want to answer it. Therefore, you must select their name from your Contacts, click the “Edit Google Voice Setting” link under their contact information. Google Voice’s Groups let you create multiple pools of people from your Google Contacts and you can do that without having to come up with a clever group name. You only need to hit the “Contacts” link in the left-hand toolbar of the Google Voice site, then select or search out names from the vertical scroll, then hit “Groups” to manage which pools they fall into according to your preferences.

You can change what happens when a Group member calls and set which phones ring, what greeting someone hears and whether you want to “ListenIn” and have Google Voice read their name to you on calling, so you can decide whether to talk or let them ring through to voice mail.

What exactly Google Voice can do for You?

• When you regularly use two or more phones: Google Voice gives you one phone number for others to have, then letting you fine-tune which phones that number rings to an OCD level. For example, it can let your home land line to ring along with your cell.
• When you dislike voice mail:  Google Voice makes it easy to play voice mail audio and integrate into Gmail for even easier access.
• Text messaging: Text messages are organized on the Google Voice site like chat conversations when sent to your Google Voice number.
• When you want annoying calls to be filtered: Google Voice has four levels of filters to resist annoying calls to weary phone hostages. You can activate “Call Presentation” to have every unknown caller say their name to Google’s servers, hear what they’re saying and pick up  the call.
• VOIP calling: Google Voice allows you to make an outbound call for free through Google Voice’s web interface to set it to ring your Gizmo number when it’s connected.
• When you make frequent international calls: Google Voice’s rates to international landlines and mobile numbers are said to be competitive and you can call from your own phones.
• Record calls regularly (and legally): You need to hit the number 4 during a call and activate call recording (presently, it works only with incoming calls) which embeds the conversation in your Google Voice In box in a matter of minutes.

A fully integrated Google Voice means free, voice mail SMS, fewer hassles with your improper phone numbers, voice mails that don’t require talk time and much more. It has been rumored that Google is working on offering number portability or integration for Google Voice.

The wild card: number portability

The wild card number portability eliminates three of Google Voice’s biggest barriers to entry:

• Having to call Google Voice and then dial a number which shows up on caller ID
• Having to store and reply to a separate SMS number for each of your contacts so that, again, your Google number shows up
• The time and hassle of getting your contacts to call you at your new Google Voice number, despite the fact that your old numbers are still working

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Google Voice, is a single phone number and in box service for managing all of your phones, transcribing voice mail and more. Google Voice, boasts of similar features as GrandCentral including, a few more cool features. 

Aggregate Your Voicemail and Text Messages

All SMS and Voicemail messages all come to Google Voice through the inbox. You can selectively filter calls to view voicemail and SMS only and also calls placed, received or missed.

Quick Voicemail Transcription

Google Voice transcribes Voice mails very quickly( within two minutes), where the transcription is displayed by the greyscale text.

The best part about voice mail transcription is that it can be searched, allowing you to dig up a voice mail in Google Voice as you can similarly find an old email in Gmail. Actually, when you tell Google Voice to send you an email when you get new voice mail, the transcription is included, meaning that your voice mail will actually be searched from Gmail.

Place Calls and Send SMS

You can place any call or send a text message to any contact quickly and easily with Google Voice’s quick Call and SMS buttons. The contact auto completion makes placing a calls extremely fast.

Integration with Google Contacts

Google Voice integrates your Google Contacts in Gmail and also plugs  into the similar contacts. The In box diverts contact auto completion from the search box to the SMS or Call to fields.

Group Settings

Google Voice has the ability to send specific calls to specied phones. The phone calls and text messages to more than one phone is based according to your preferences in group settings. For example, you can categorize your phones, each identified as Home, Work, etc, plus a single temporary forwarding number. Now, you can transfer all calls from your boss or co-workers to only reach your work phone, or have calls from your significant other ring every phone so you’re always reachable.

Creepy Calls

Google Voice features has some in-call options including, Listen-in, Call blocking, Call recording and Call switching. These features help to avoid creepy callers who violate cell phone etiquette.

Conclusion

Google Voice is both exciting and impressive as it helps you in managing your phones and integrating voice mail and SMS directly into your email. The main new feature I like is the transcription as it is fantastically helpful to be able to search phone calls like that.