Google Genie
Google seems intent to make all my unvoiced technical dreams come true. So to make their jobs easier, I've decided to "voice" my actual requests for my most recent Google Gem, Google Voice. In return, I'll share with them how they can get me to pay for it.
The Google Voice phone number goes with you everywhere. You can tie it to your cell, home and work phone. The number remains the same even if you move, change cell providers or change jobs - which makes it handy for you and everyone in your life. You can set it up so that it rings on all devices at once, or one or more - it's completely flexible. I have calls from colleagues and clients ring to my work phone and my cell simultaneously and most friend calls to my home and cell. Google Voice has the potential to give me everything I could possibly need in a phone and more. Let's dig into that thought a bit.
Port Phone Numbers
This has to be the most requested Google Voice feature. To be able to use your current mobile / home / office number with the GV service. I'd like it not just because its a PITA to ask all my family, friends, customers, and colleagues to change their behaviour and call a new number. But because more often than not, which number they call tells me more about the intent of the caller. I need to be able to handle calls made to my office line from nine to five differently than calls made to my home number over the same period. If I already have the caller in my contact list, I can make some guesses about how to handle the call, but what about all those that I don't?
Now that I have access to my Voice Mail from my computer, I find I really want to be able to tag them with GTD labels. Superstars in Gmail allows me to do this easily (http://tinyurl.com/gtd-gmail-labels), so I suspect it will be coming soon but I really want this NOW.
Notification
When someone calls my GV #, their info shows up in my Caller ID. This is a good thing, as I want to know who's calling, but currently I have no way of knowing if they called using GV or my regular phone number. This problem goes away of course once I can Port all my numbers to GV. In the meantime it would be nice.
Conf Calls
It seems that to add someone to a conference call, they have to call me. Very often I would like to be able to conference them into the call by actually calling them.
Fax Support
I already have a fax to email service However since Google Voice is fast becoming my de facto switchboard I'd like to be able to receive faxes to my GV #.
Voice Activated Speed Dial
Currently when you call Google Voice to make an outgoing call you have to type in your pin, the #2, then the number you're going to call. How many people on your contact list have phone numbers you know? If I am initiating my call from a computer or using the very handy Blackberry Google Voice plug in, I can browse though my contacts. If I'm calling from my house or office line though I need to know the number. My Blackberry has a feature that allows me to access my phone book via voice command. I would *love* to have this with Google Voice.
Conditional Caller ID
What if My Caller ID could change based on the group I was calling? So for instance, what if when I called a Business Client my caller ID said "PCL Design & Consulting" while if I was calling friends and family it said my name? Yes I know there might be some issues with people claming to be someone they aren't so there would have to be some sort of verifying step, but still I think this would be kewl.
And now for the features I'd be willing to pay for.
Forward Voice Mail
I would love to be able to add notes before and after a Voice Mail then send it on to my Admin (preferable with tags). The fact that I can now email the voice mails to her with typed instructions is very handy, but often I'm doing this from my cellphone on the road, so voice notes would work out better.
Add Phone Extentions
The ability to route calls to a phone based on extensions and time of day is well worth having.
1-800 Numbers
Making calls out to anywhere in the continental U.S. is free using GV. But people who are calling me still have to pay long distance charges if they aren't in the same area code. I'd be willing to pay to change that.
Open API
I'm sure that integration with Google Wave will help with this. But I'd really like to help Google out with some of these features. An open API would allow open source developers to do just that.
Google, make my now-voiced GV dreams come true. If you do, you'll have given me (and others) the ultimate in high tech phone service. You've come so close to giving us enough features to keep us happy and productive for some time. In the meantime, we'll wait for the latest Google Voice upgrades while we manage our integrated communications.
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