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You may or may not have heard of Googles new Voice service. For you beta testers, you may already be up and running. In the next couple of weeks Google will be releasing Google Voice, a free service, which was formerly GrandCentral. This blog post will provide real life examples of using this service, which I believe can be useful for anyone with a cell phone.

I have had the GrandCentral product since it was bought by Google and opened up for beta testing in 2007. The service has been improved and is going to be released to everyone in the next couple of weeks with the new name of Google Voice. It has come along way since 2007 and this upcoming release offers many improvements. At first glance it may not seem like a service that would be worth using, but over the last couple of years I have determined this service is indeed very useful in both business and personal life. So here are some examples of how I use the service.

1. Use your Google Voice number as your work number. So on Friday night at 6 PM when the phone rings with a number that looks familiar do you answer the call in hopes of it being a co-worker wanting to grab a drink or do you send it to voicemail in fears that it’s a business call thats going to cut into your weekend. Google Voice helps to filter calls so you don’t have to make that tough decision. When an unfamiliar (not in your Google Voice address book) call comes in to your Google Voice number the user is prompted to say their name. Once that happens your cell phone will ring and you have 4 options. 1) You can accept the call 2) Send the call to voicemail 3) Listen in on the voicemail or 4) Accept the call and record the conversation. So maybe you’re not sure you want to talk to “Brian” so you listen in on his voicemail and decide to accept the call midway through the message, its easy you just press * and you are now on the line.

2. You will be able to use your current Google contacts or import your contacts. So you can have custom dial tones (instead of “ring” “ring”) and custom greetings. You can customize them at an individual level or at a group level (Friends, Family, etc.). So you can have a professional message for your business callers and a fun more laid back message for your friends and family.

3. You can have web calls from your website via a web call button. This feature allows you to add a “Call me” button on your website with the option of hiding your actual number. An anonymous number will call the person and connect them to your Google Voice number. This would be a handy feature for those that are selling something (like on ebay).

4. You have the option of being notified of a missed call and/or voicemail via email. You can listen to voicemails and recorded calls from your computer. A new feature allows messages to be sent via text to your email, so you can read the voicemail message. This can be a handy feature when you may not have cell phone reception to check a message or you are in a setting where a phone is not appropriate.

There are many other features that are useful and I could go on and on with the advantages of Google Voice but I will let you check it out for yourself here. Again, the service won’t be open to the public for a couple of weeks, but it’s definitely something to keep an eye on so you can sign up when it becomes available.