My dad texted me on Friday morning, which was triply cool because he was sensitive to my hangover, but wanted to wish me a happy birthday, all while using his new iPhone. So the text meant a lot. Unfortunately the confluence of homecoming and birthday celebrations made things difficult for me to get back to him quickly. Turns out they were pretty peeved, which caught me a little off-guard considering it was only one unreturned text. Unbeknownst to me, my iPhone has been eating my voicemails for the last month, failing to notify me when anyone's left one (or four in the recent case with the 'rents).
I found all this out just hours ago while trying to fix the problem and listening to the other 29 messages. So imagine my surprise when during a break from searching for an Apple customer service number (is there one?), I stumbled on this gem in my Google Reader.
In a few words: Google's new app, Voice, is now useful to anyone who loves email, hates voicemail and doesn't want to give up their cell phone number. More explained below:
The video below and link here do a good job explaining why this is useful and how easy it is to set up.
I already had a Google Voice account but since I didn't want to give out a new number, it wasn't all that useful to me. Well now it is, even with an iPhone, because it
Yes, it's true you can't use all the cool applications within Google Voice like free calls and text messages and multiple phone lines (home, cell, office) all using one number. However, the ability to have my voicemails sent to me via email (or text, if you prefer) is an awesome thing to have, and is even better for non-iPhone users who can't even find out who the voicemail was left by without listening.
Give it a shot. If you have an account already, click here for help. If you don't, click here to request an invitation.
Important update: Turns out I was wrong to yell at Apple for this - it's apparently Google Voice itself (I had set it up a month ago) that has caused me to lose visual voicemail.
Basically you can only have the voicemails stored in one place. So now they're going to my Google Voice account.
Conclusion: If you like visual voicemail - don't follow the directions in my post (though you can request a GV account and wait a while till it's all sorted out). If you'd rather get emails or texts instead of visual voicemail, go ahead and do it.
4 comments:
I'm with you - I have a GV account, but haven't really used it very much. Until GV has number porting, I just can't find myself using it all that much. Then again, for those of you who live in apartments with bad cell reception - I use GV as my "home number" for my doorman so when my Chinese food is delivered, they can call my GV number instead of my dead iPhone. Its basically like having a free landline that's only used for voicemail.
Also - to those of you that are having problems with voicemail on the iPhone - If you enabled the tethering "hack," you break the voicemail feature in 3.1.2. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, move along, otherwise let me know if you need help fixing it.
Apple customer service: 1-800-MY-APPLE. Technically that's the route to the store, but you just ask for AppleCare and you're good.
Turns out I was wrong to yell at Apple for this - it's apparently Google Voice itself (I had set it up a month ago) that has caused me to lose visual voicemail.
Basically you can only have the voicemails stored in one place. So now they're going to my Google Voice account.
Conclusion: If you like visual voicemail - don't follow the directions in my post (though you can request a GV account and wait a while till it's all sorted out). If you'd rather get emails or texts instead of visual voicemail, go ahead and do it.
Week 1 update: The translation on this feature has been horrible but you can still opt to play the voicemail from the email notification. Also, it's been a lifesaver since I have been without a phone for almost a week now and I'm still able to get voicemails through email. I then go to either Gmail or Google Voice, text the people I want, and it's all good.
Also a sweet Google related feature in the Google Sync / Push Email category: In normal gmail, when a gchat is sent after you've left gmail, you don't receive the chat until you log back on a computer. With Push Gmail, it seems all chats arrive to your inbox, even if you're on just your smartphone. Pretty classy Google.
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