Dear Google Voice, thanks for the Invite! (Part I)

Well on July 16th I finally received my Google Voice invite.  (Ironically I received another invite to a different e-mail address the next day).  As soon as that little red badge popped up on my Mail icon in the dock I was clicking on that invite link.  So I’ve had a few days to play around with it (wanted to give it a good once over before reviewing it) and I must say, so far so fabulous!  For those of you who haven’t received your invite yet prepare to get excited or jealous (depending on the type of person you are) because this post is going to be all about my experience signing up for Google Voice. (Part II will be a review of the features and pros and cons of Google Voice)

When you first click the invite link you are taken to a form that asks you for your area code as well as some letters and numbers (this is where you’re customization comes in) that you would like to be in your phone number. Unfortunately every combination of MsJosay was unavailable so I skipped the step and was provided with a massive list of numbers for me to choose from all with my area code.  As a side note – I found it interesting that even though the numbers Google provided me were preceded by my area code, the locations (cities) listed under the number were not the city I am living in (for example the city for my phone number is Mountain View, CA – I do not live in or really near Mountain View).

After scrolling through what seemed like hundreds of phone numbers to find the right one (the right one for me was one that was easy to remember) I settled on a number and proceeded to the next screen.  Which asked me to enter a forwarding number (this is the phone that will ring when someone calls your Google voice number).  I entered my cell phone number and moved on to the next screen where I was informed that Google would be calling me and asking me to enter a two digit code (which was provided in the dialog box on the screen). Within about 30 seconds I received a phone call to my cell phone, entered the code and Poof! my account was verified.

Immediately I was taken to the Google Voice home screen where there was already a voicemail waiting for me from Google.  How nice of them to welcome me with my first voicemail.  The first thing I did was go through and adjust all of the settings to my liking.  This took some time because there are an insane amount of settings and preferences you can tweak.  This is nice because you can customize everything just the way you want it.  Some nifty settings include:

- setting up personalized greeting messages by caller

- choosing whether or not to have Google Voice show up as the caller id when a number is forwarded to your phone (you have the option to show exactly who is calling but if you have your Google Voice number in use for business you may want to know who is calling your Google Voice number and answer accordingly).

- How you’re notified of a new voicemail message  (through e-mail or SMS)

- Calling screening

The list goes on and on and on.  So far I think I have my number set up the way I want it.  So for those of you who are still waiting for your invite you have a lot of great features to look forward to.  Stay tuned for my next post where I will review some of the key features offered by Google Voice as well as the service in general.

Did you get your invite?  What do you think of Google Voice?  Enjoy it?  Not what you expected?  Leave it in the comments!