Google Voice - have you moved from your hometown, and now friends and family have to call you long distance? The solution is to get a free local phone number from Google. Then make it ring the long distance number(s) where you currently live. First create a Google Voice account, then tie your existing home and cell phone numbers to the Google number. A choice of new phone numbers is provided, and one local to friends and family can be chosen.
When you set up the Google Voice number, ask for a new number (DON'T use your existing mobile number), then choose an area code in your hometown area. Then click search, and several numbers will appear, with their associated city listed below them. Scroll through the numbers until one from your hometown, or a nearby town, appears. Or add a few numbers to the search box that you would like in your phone number, and see if any are available. When finished, go to settings and configure how the phone number will work. Google Voice Features site
If you don't have this long distance problem, Google Voice may still be of benefit to you. It can be used to simultaneously ring up to six phones, so people don't have to keep trying different phone numbers to find you. If you change phone companies, go on vacation, spend time in the hospital or rehab, you can change your Google Voice account to ring your current phone numbers. If your cell phone doesn't have text messaging, you can set your Google number up to accept text messages, and send them to your email account.
A new Google Voice feature in settings is recording (works on incoming calls only). When this feature is turned on, if someone calls you, press 4 during the conversation to turn recording on or off. (An announcement will be made that the call is now being recorded.) Very convenient when someone is reading off birth/death dates and marriages from a list, and you can't write fast enough to capture it. More information can be found on the Google Voice Features site.
