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The Global Inbox with E-mail, Text, Voice Mail is Closer

Back in March when I really became infatuated with Google Voice, I made five predictions about where Google might be taking Google Voice.

One started coming true last night.

To review, the predictions were :
  1. Google will have a phone spam list similar to Gmail's spam list
  2. fax send and receive
  3. Google will have their own soft phone, maybe even buy Skype
  4. Someone can send an email to you by sending to [your Google voice phone number]@gmail.com
  5. The Google Voice inbox and the Gmail inbox will merge, making a Global Inbox
Last night Google announced that Text messages sent to your Google Voice number could be forwarded to your email address.

Since you have long been able to have incoming voice mails sent to e-mail, #5 is done. You are able to check for email, SMS text messages and voice mails all in one inbox.

To set this up, in Google Voice, go to Settings, Voicemail & SMS tab, and click the checkbox by SMS Forwarding to select it.

Let's take a moment to review the other four predictions; one of which is almost here.

Number 1: Spam : While you can designate a contact as Spam, and future messages go to a spam folder, I do not yet know of Google instituting a Spam list.

Number 2 : Fax Send & Receive : Not yet. That is my #1 desire. I hope they do this.

Number 3: Softphone : I was hoping they'd buy Skype. Skype did recently sell, but not to Google. Maybe the new owners will be interested in some partnership with Google. If not, there are ways Googl can still go here including intregating thei Google Talk into Google Voice.

Number 4: Email : Actually, when I wrote that I forgot that when Google Voice was Grandcentral they had that feature. It is still there. If you email [a Google Voice Number]@grandcentral.com then that person gets the email (example 555-555-1212@grandcentral.com)

Changing that over to the gmail domain would seemingly be a trivial exercise.

Update 9/10/2009 : Gmail Labs has a new tool letting you listen to Google Voice voice amils from right inside your email. In Gmail, go to Settings, Labs to Enable it.
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  1. RogerSeptember 9, 2009 at 3:33 PM

    Regarding #4, it doesn't appear to be implemented for new users of the service. Only previous grandcentral customers seem to be able to use this feature.

    ReplyDelete

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