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Why Google voice and Skype?

HOTHEAD

HOTHEAD

Well-Known Member
I have a company plan so my question is, If im not worried about going over my plan, do I need google voice account? Same goes for Skype.
Am I missing something, what are the benifits of the google voice account?

Thanks
Regards
HOTHEAD
 
No, you don't need them. But, they can come in handy in some situations. For instance, I can use my phone to call a friend in VietNam using Skype instead of calling a phone and not have to pay long-distance. There are other things as well, but that is the one I like most.
 
Google Voice is more about number management. It allows you to have custom treatment of each caller. It essentially converts a regular number into VOIP, giving you all the software possibilities of VOIP.

And visual voicemail is the single biggest benefit. All of your voice messages stacked up, with caller ID and time. I hate dialing into voicemail, wondering what it will be and having to listen to all messages in order.
 
You don't need them, but they do come in useful. My girlfriend is in Spain for the next 5 months so skype is the chosen method of communication between us. So by having skype on my droid, she can call me wherever I am using skype from her laptop and it is free of charge.

I use google voice as a free replacement for visual voicemail. Instead of paying Verizon's monthly service charge for their vvm app, I just use gv and get the added benifit of being able to choose multiple voicemail greetings for different calling groups.

Both of these apps are non-essential, but they have already saved me a lot of money.
 
Thank you much people, thats what I figured. Company already picks up dime on VVM with Verizon. Just wanted to make sure fully understood what I could do with it.

As always Thank You
Regards
HOTHEAD
 
So what are people using for skype? Last time I checked it was a series of 3 different apps to make it work. Is there just one app that works for skype now?
 
I'm using Google Voice primarily to do away with the Verizon text message plan. If you set it up right and train your contacts to use your GV#, you can get around having a pay-for SMS plan.

I've been doing this for a month now and it looks like I'll be able to cancel the Verizon SMS plan next month.

The only downside is that the Google Voice app only checks for messages every 5 minutes.
 
I spoke to friends in Britain this weekend, and using GV, it announced the price before connecting - only 2 cents per minute (calling a friend's mobile over there would've been 18 cents/min).

Cheers, Carl.
 
Personally I use Youmail for VVM over GV simply because it has far more options on a per-call related basis. You can set up individual greetings per caller based on CID (if they are added to contacts), can set up ditchmail for unwanted numbers that will automatically hang up on them. It offers the transcription service as well, but it costs money. That is the only voicemail feature that GV has over Youmail imo.. and it's not that great anyway to be worth it to me.

GV however is great for number management. I primarily use it to ring all my phones and only ring them within a period of time I want to be bothered. It's main use though is a DID number for my SIP setup. My hopes are that once Google finally decides to do something with Gizmo5, GV should be a all-in-one VOIP package that can completely free us from the large Telcos, so I'll hang onto my accounts.
 
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