Smarterware

(Updated) How to Transfer Google Voice to Your Google Apps Account

Update: Google Voice product manager Craig Walker confirms that the Apps transfer is NOT supported right now, and that it was only done for a small group of testers. Sorry, all. The good news? He says there will be a way to transfer your Voice account to Google Apps once the new GApps features that are being tested right now launch. In the meantime, I'm removing the link to the request form from this post.

Update: After I published this post, Google added very strong language to that form insisting that transfers to GApps accounts are NOT SUPPORTED (caps theirs). I'm not sure why it worked for Dustin and myself. Your mileage may vary.

Even though this request form says it doesn't work for Google Apps accounts, I can confirm that Google is transferring Google Voice from regular Google accounts to Google Apps accounts right now. Thanks to a comment by reader Dustin Boston, I gave it a try this afternoon and within the hour, my Google Voice number, texts, and voicemail was ported to my Google Apps account. If you try this, a couple of things to know:

• You'll have to enter your 4-digit PIN into the request form. I forgot mine, had to reset it, got it wrong the first time, got a message saying so, reset it again, and then all worked. Write down your PIN. It's only 4 digits.
• You'll have to re-record your Google Voice name and greeting(s). They don't get ported.
• I maintain an Apps contact list, so this didn't really affect me, but Dustin recommends exporting your Google account contacts before the transfer so you can import them into your Voice account.

Here's the form to request the transfer [removed]. Even though it does say it doesn't work for Google Apps accounts, it did work for Dustin and myself.

How to Integrate Your Google Apps

The information you keep in Google apps like Gmail, GCal, Reader, and Voice doesn't just live in one place. There are a few easy but non-obvious ways to plug different Google apps together and share their data and features.

Thanks to things like Labs and gadgets, you can get your Calendar in Gmail (and vice versa), Docs in Calendar and Gmail, Profile info in Google Reader, Google Voice SMS in your Gmail, and just about everything on iGoogle. Here's how.

Read the rest at Lifehacker »

Get Favicon Alerts on Your Google Voice Tab

In the hallowed tradition of unread item counts on your Gmail and Google Reader favicons in Firefox, user script developer Peter Wooley offers the same for Google Voice users. If you've got the Greasemonkey add-on installed, grab the GVoice Favicon Alerts script to hook this up. You can also faviconize and permatab your Voice tab with this script enabled as detailed here. (Yes, faviconize and permatab are now verbs.) I haven't put together a Better Google Voice add-on (yet?), but if I ever do, this will be the first script in it. Do you use any other Greasemonkey scripts to make Google Voice's web interface better? Post 'em up in the comments. If there are enough quality scripts, I'll start asking the authors for permission to include them in a compiled Better GVoice add-on.

How to SMS with Google Voice from Any Mobile Phone

Just because you don't have an Android phone or BlackBerry doesn't mean you can't text from your cellphone using your Google Voice number. If you've gotten an invite to Google Voice and you're an iPhone or non-smartphone user, you might be disappointed about not having clear access to the texting feature. However, you CAN use Google Voice SMS capabilities on any phone. Even if you do have an Android phone or BlackBerry, you can use this method to use the native SMS app on it. It's an inconvenient kluge, but it works.

First, log into Google Voice and configure it to forward text messages to your cell phone. When someone sends a text message to your Google Voice number, you'll receive the text on your phone--but not from the recipient's phone number. Instead, it will be a 406 number you've never seen before, with the person's name preceding the message (as pictured here). Add that number to your recipient's address book entry as "Other" or a custom label (like "GV SMS"). Each one of your text recipients will have a different 406 number.

From there on in, if you SMS that 406 number, your recipient will receive text messages from you--and it will look like they're coming from your Google Voice number. Their replies to any messages you send to that number will go back to your Google Voice number and come to you via the 406--meaning, your recipient never sees the 406 number. Like I said, it's a kluge, but it works.

Official Google Voice App Now on Android (and BlackBerry)

For an solution built by an independent developer without an API, GV did a great job of putting Google Voice on Android. But today GOOG finally got around to releasing their official Google Voice app, and it includes a few more features than GV, even if it's not totally polished yet. I'm still getting my feet wet with the new app, and GV developer Evan Charlton is still deciding on his application's fate. But all indicators point to the official app becoming my main Google Voice interface on Android. (Huge thanks to Evan for all his hard and fast-to-market work on GV.)

At first glance the two things I like most about the official Google Voice application is label access and voicemail playback (which highlights words in the text transcription as it plays). It also feels snappier.

Over at Lifehacker, Kevin runs down what you get with the Google Voice apps on both Android and BlackBerry. Here's Google's official announcement video.

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GV Integrates Google Voice into Android

Android users who are switching over to their Google Voice phone number full-time like I am need a handy little app called GV. GV provides calling and SMS support via your Google Voice number in Android that isn't perfect, but is getting there.

GV's About dialog says that GOOG hasn't released an official, supported API for the product, so it'll only work as long as Google Voice's mobile interface doesn't change. No doubt the Android developers at Google are busy at work building default hooks to Google Voice into a future release of the mobile phone operating system. But until Google Voice support comes out of the box, GV's the way to go.

Install GV from the Android Market (it's free), and hit up the settings to enter your Google Voice username, password, and phone number. From there, any time you make a call or send an SMS, you have the choice to use your Google Voice number or your cell phone number.

Here's what that looks like.

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Google Voice Makes the Phone Less Loathsome

If you hate listening to voicemail or getting interrupted by an unknown number ringing your phone during dinner, then you will love Google Voice. Google's new phone product (which re-brands Google-acquired GrandCentral) makes dealing with voice communication less than awful.

I've been a GrandCentral user for well over a year now, but Google Voice adds two key components that complete the must-have feature puzzle: voicemail transcription and SMS. Now that I can read (read!!) my voicemail and you can text message my Google Voice number, I'm making it my primary phone number. Alongside its awesome filters, Google Voice is essentially the Gmail of voicemail and phonecalls.

Here's what my Google Voice box looks like right now, and how I'm using it specifically.

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