Why I Dropped GoogleVoice Voicemail

A few days ago I wrote about my first impressions of GoogleVoice. Now I have stopped using it. Here’s why.

My first annoyance was with the dial in service. When you call to hear your messages you only have access to new messages. Saved messages cannot be heard when calling in. The only way to hear a saved message is through the web. One of the things I like about my mobile provider’s voicemail is that I can save messages and listen to them later. This is very handy for when I’m on the road and need to replay a message that includes the address for a meeting I’m supposed to attend. GoogleVoice simply doesn’t allow that access when calling into the voicemail system. Yes, you can access the mobile web version but that’s not as convenient for me as calling in. (This is just my preference. Your opinion may be different.)

There’s a workaround for this. All you need to do is save the message as new after listening to it on the phone and you’ll be able to hear it at a later time. But be sure to save this message as unread if you check your voicemail through the web. The workaround works but is very annoying. GoogleVoice’s voicemail dial in needs to have the same requirements as my providers voicemail. If it doesn’t then the other features need to work perfectly to compel me to switch.

Which brings me to the other reason I’m not using GoogleVoice’s voicemail anymore: transcription. I ran several tests to see how well the voicemail transcirption feature works. The bottom line is that it doesn’t work very well. I could live with the problems with the dial in (discussed above) if the transcription worked well because I’d have text messages and/or emails with an accurate text versions of the messages in them. But very often the text is munged so much that the point of the message is lost. And when you’re looking for an address based on a voicemail the transcription must be perfect.

I could live with one of these two features not being up to par if the other worked well. But in this case both features are just not ready yet. I’ll check back from time to time to see if things have improved but for now I’m back on my mobile provider’s voicemail.

By the way, here’s a GoogleVoice setup tip: When you’re setting up your account get a GoogleVoice number even if you don’t plan on using it. As I mentioned in my previous post I chose to not have a GoogleVoice number and opted instead to use my existing mobile number. I soon realized that this was a mistake. Using my own number sacrifices some GoogleVoice services that I’m not currently interested in using but what if I choose to use those services later? There’s no way to add a GoogleVoice number to an account that was set up without one. You’ll need to set up a new account and start everything again. (In my case I had to scramble to find someone who had a spare invitation before I could start a new setup. Until Google opens up the system for everyone sans invite you’re likely to have to do the same thing.) So when setting up your account be sure to get the GoogleVoice number even if you don’t plan on using it. This way you’ll have it in the event that you change your mind.

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