In the 21st century, Google calls you. So, I’ve been using GrandCentral for quite a long time, and have been sorta cranky they’ve not done anything to it since the aquisition by Google. Well, it’s been rebranded Google Voice, and they’ve added some fun features along with generally Goog-ifying the UI (by which I mean: making it boring visually, but simple and functional). Here’s some of the hotness:
Voicemail Transcription
I use GrandCen Google Voice for phone-spam, mainly. I’m perfectly happy to give out the number wherever, post it on my website, etc. knowing that if it ever gets out of hand, I can have it stop calling my actual phone, or go away completely. Naturally, I don’t pick it up unless I know who’s calling, so the ability to screen callers’ voicemails without having to dial in or listen to the webified version is, well, fucking awesome.
SMS
Yay, another free SMS service. Yawn. But wait! In this case, the sender is properly displayed (unlike in Gmail chat), making it something practical to actually use (and you bet I will!). Also (and naturally), the messages are grouped and organized a lot like Gmail conversations, another big win:
Recording Greetings
The slickest bit, though, comes with recording names & greetings. Instead of having to initiate it from the device, with clunky touch-tone menus and the like, the service will give you a ring and ask you to start talking. Hang up, it adds it. Seamless. Beautiful.
There’s a (pretty obviously credible) rumor that Gmail integration will be coming soon. Since I already pipe all mail into Gmail regardless of source, here’s one more step towards the beauty of Exchange Unified Messaging without the peskiness and complete impracticality of Exchange*.
None of this is earth-shattering technically, but the seamlessness and dead-simple operation take the UX of previously-fiddly operations to another level. EPIC WIN!
* = unless you’re a huge organization with a ton of money to spend and people to devote their lives to keeping running