Enough Already About Ringing All Your Phones!
Sprint customers are now being notified that they will be able to integrate with Google Voice. Among the benefits touted in the announcement was access to the Google Voice web feature that enables callers to use one phone number that will then ring all your phones (wired and wireless). How dumb can you get!
See news release at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster-forward/post/sprint-starts-rolling-out-google-voice-integration/2011/04/22/AFpZbTQE_blog.html
It’s bad enough that the legacy telephone user interface (TUI) is so disruptive to the call recipient and anyone within range of the ringing device, it provides no information to the recipient about the caller’s reason for the call, (No ” subject” information). Busy people don’t always want to be notified that someone is calling them, especially when it is a bad time to talk (driving a car, in a meeting, noisy environment, etc.), often unimportant, and often a “wrong number.” Call notifications can now be done more efficiently and less disruptively than simply ringing a device.
As consumers quickly move to using mobile, personalized, multi-modal “smartphones” rather than desktop phones or even old, limited cell phones, the call notification and screening game will change forever! That’s all I want say for now on this subject, but, believe me, there is much more!
Art,
You are so focussed on the end result, you are missing the game. Google Voice is a far more powerful service than you give it credit for - and for the first time a major carrier is actually embracing it.
Ring All is a feature of the Google Voice - but only one.
Firstly - it is mutlimodal. The service supports SMS - SMS forwarding (you can change your cell number and still receive SMS texts - try that without GV) and it does voice mail transcription. Voice Mail transcription is a powerful multimodal tool and now several enterprise players are catching on. For example, I can be in a seminar - unable to receive calls, but able to view email. I can see you called me - the subject and urgency and take appropriate action.
Two other GV features worth noting is call filtering. I can set Google Voice to send all calls to voice mail after six - unless you call. You I want to talk to. I can filter by person or by groups I create.
Another feature is callerID substitution. GV allows me to make calls and send out my GV callerid - totally passively. I have to see an enterprise mobile solution offer this feature passively. When I call people - from my office, cell, or even Skype - I have a single consistent outbound callerID. This is important as so many people use call logs for redial. As mentioned, I can control incoming calls with filters, custom messages, even recording - but not if they call my numbers directly.
GV is a powerful tool - though not ready for the enterprise, I see it is a major step in UC evolution and celebrate its partnership with Sprint. Most of the cell carriers offer nothing like this - and in fact, attempt to hold us hostage with minutes on their ridiculous voice mail systems (takebackthebeep.com)
Dave,
As I explained to you over he phone, my complaint was only about that particular feature,, not Google Voice itself, which, unfortunately, was highlighted in the announcement article.
GV (and Dave) are focused on the old technology - phone numbers. Calling SMS multimedia is comical. Completely missing the strategy for the tactical.