Google Voice recently updated their app at the beginning of September to support Honeycomb tablets. I’m a Google Voice user and was at first surprised to find out that their app was not supported on Android tablets. It’s not clear to me why it took Google so long since the app is very simple. Nevertheless it’s here but you maybe asking what is Google Voice.
Google voice is a great product that enhances your existing phone service. First, with Google Voice you get voicemail transcription that you can read from your phone, computer, and now tablet. I have found that the feature works pretty well although not completely accurate. I love this feature because I hate listening to voicemails, specially having to go through my phone. But with Google Voice you get so much more because you can make custom voicemail messages for a single person or group of contacts. Another feature that I use a lot is the call screening that is easily setup by group contacts so I have family and friends get through but no one else. When someone who is screened calls, you even have the option of listening to them leave their voice message which is pretty cool. There is also has an automatic spam filter for telemarketers.
Google voice also give you the capabilities of call forwarding. You can forward your called to any number or multiple numbers at the same time. The call forwarding can be setup based on a caller’s number, time, day, or contact groups. In addition, you get text messaging which is done over the web so it won’t cost you anything. The only limitation is that currently it can’t handle any text message with multimedia (MMS). The great aspect about all these features is that you can access them on you phone, computer, and now tablet.
Now the Google Voice app for the tablet is exactly the same as the phone version. This a bit disappointing but it’s great to at least have access to Google Voice from my tablet. The one feature that was added is a widget which I love. Widgets are one of the best aspects of tablets and one thing that sets it apart from other non-Android tablets (which we won’t mention here). The Google Voice widget is adjustable to the whole height of the tablet allowing you to easily scroll through your messages without opening the app. Hopefully Google will add more tablet friendly features in a future update.
You can download the app from the Android Market.
Sprint customers can integrate Google Voice with their current mobile number.
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