Use Google Voice without changing your number

Thu, May 14, 2009 Posted By:Eric Friedman

Marketing.fm

Edit: Please see comments for latest updates and settings for different phones

Google Voice muy pronto!
Image by marcopako  via Flickr

I recently figured out a cool hack that lets you use Google Voice and all the features it offers that are superior to most systems, without the hassle of giving out a new phone number owned by Google.

I discovered this via a post about using SkyDeck to also sync. contacts and have other functionality – all things I did not need, so I took them out of the equation. If you are interested in even more functions, syncing, and worry about GV going down checkout SkyDeck.

To make this work you need a Google Voice account

1. Login to your Google Voice account and go to Settings
a. Make sure your settings (time Zone) and Greeting is setup – I setup a custom greeting so it operates like a standard VM system on a cell phone.
b. Enable Screening should not be checked (if checked it makes callers say their name before putting the call through to you)
c. Call Presentation > OFF (while off it directly connects calls that come through)
d. Caller ID – Display Caller’s Number (again, your choice but displaying your GV number is confusing)
e. make sure you have a pin setup
f. Transcribe Voicemails should be checked

2. Click Phones in settings
Make sure none of your numbers are checked. If they are, GV will try to ring other numbers when you do not answer your cell phone, or send calls to VM.

3. Modify settings on your cell phone to change the default VM settings – a big thank you to SkyDeck for supplying this information:

Alltel *71your-10-digit-Google-Voice-number
AT&T *004*1your-10-digit-Google-Voice-number#
Sprint Call Sprint Technical Support at 888 211 4727 and ask to turn on “call forward busy” and “call forward no answer” for your cell phone. This means that your phone will ring as usual when you receive a call, but if you are busy or do not answer the call will go to Google Voice. When they ask what number to forward to, tell them your-10-digit-Google-Voice-number. (Do not ask for “regular”, “normal”, or “immediate” call forwarding, or all of your calls will go to voicemail.)
T-Mobile *004*1your-10-digit-Google-Voice-number#
Verizon *711your-10-digit-Google-Voice-number
US Cellular *74your-10-digit-Google-Voice-number

If you want to unforward your number do one of the following:

Alltel *74##your 10-digit cell-phone number
AT&T #002#
Sprint Call Sprint Technical Support at 888 211 4727. Ask them to turn off “call forward busy” and “call forward no answer” for your cell phone.
US Cellular *740
Verizon *73
T-Mobile #002#

4. Test out your new automatically FREE transcribed voicemail system! Google Voice will text and email you a message (you can turn this off) when you get a VM and give you a transcription of the voicemail

For me this is a killer way to get the best of Google Voice features, without having to give out a new number to anyone. Google has my trust with email, and I do not have problems letting them archive my voicemails either. It also provides a great record of missed calls and documents numbers so that I can look them up later.

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This post was written by:

Eric Friedman - who has written 635 posts on Marketing.fm – Eric Friedman.

Analyst at Union Square Ventures, blogger at www.marketing.fm and operating experience within SEM, SEO, and Social Media. You should follow me on twitter @EricFriedman

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  • Interesting solution. I've been avoiding trying out the service in part because I didn't want to bring another phone number into the picture (at least until I'm clear on where Google is going with this.) I assume the service is working well for you? Also - have you figured out whether Google is hanging onto the voicemail transcripts fro their own database?
  • Interestingly I have not found a way to delete VMs yet, so maybe it is archiving them to learn better transcription routines. I am happier keeping a number I have had for awhile and can port to any carrier vs. using a GV number (which is a 310 area code anyway which is even more confusing for people)
  • bufori
    Lucky for both of you you can keep your own number now.
  • This is exactly how I set it up for myself last month. Great walkthrough. This is clearly the most reasonable hack...we've all had our numbers forever....
  • I cannot imagine not being able to take my number with me, or updating everyone - I have had my cell number for literally a decade now.
  • i had trouble finding a way to adjust my voicemail number on the iPhone. Any tips on how to do that?
  • I think the same effect can be realized by setting the Do not disturb option. This way you can temporarily override this and receive calls on your other phones.
  • Good call - ill check it out. So far it works well.
  • Well, it works. Takes too long to send to voicemail for me though.
  • Too many rings or too long to deliver the email?
  • I meant too many rings, although the email/sms took like 4 minutes, which isn't bad.
  • This is interesting one .. will try it up ...
  • Let me know how it works for you
  • it's a nice tips..thanks for sharing it..
    btw, if you're interested to keep telephone number, NumberGarage is the perfect solution. It allows you to keep your phone number and it also forwards for your phone..
  • I think number garage is pretty cool - especially to "park" a number. I
    have a cell number that I will never give up and my phone can handle most of
    the forwarding I have setup. Google Voice does the rest and the
    transcribing has been pretty good (but not as good as PhoneTag I believe)
  • Randy
    Sprint charges $.20 per minute of call forwarding; worth noting.
  • Wow great to know...

    I hope tmo doesn't charge
  • I have a G1 and wasn't able to set my voice forwarding numbers using "*004*1-xxx-xxx-xxxx#". However, if you dial that number, and hit send, it will switch over all of the call forwarding numbers to the phone number at the end of the message.

    Hope that helps anyone else who has run into this problem.
  • Thanks Fazal
  • Val
    Ok, I must be doing something wrong. If I call my voicemail from my cell phone I get access to the GVoice. But, if I call my cell phone number from any other phone it goes straight to my regular cell phone voicemail. Obviously, I'm blonde...could use a little extra help :)
  • hmmm sounds like you did not forward your cell phone vm correctly. You can
    always call your carrier and have them walk you through the steps. The
    instructions above should be for all companies though.
  • hmmm sounds like you did not forward your cell phone vm correctly. You can
    always call your carrier and have them walk you through the steps. The
    instructions above should be for all companies though.
  • hmmm sounds like you did not forward your cell phone vm correctly. You can
    always call your carrier and have them walk you through the steps. The
    instructions above should be for all companies though.
  • it takes alot of rings. 8 not going to work for some people.
  • Good point - is there any way to control the amount of rings in Google Voice?
  • Ok, but doesn't this mean that one can no longer forward their calls to different phones based upon predetermined criteria? This is one of the value propositions for Google Voice.
  • I totally agree, but currently do not have the need for that feature.

    Until I can port my number to Google this is a great stop gap to get free vm transcription and archived voicemail.

    Hope it was helpful.
  • I agree with you, Eric. Thanks for the info!
  • Ok, I've done it. But when I make calls from my cell, will my caller see the actual number or my GV number?

    You rock, Eric!
  • If all you did was forward your cell to GV then anyone you call will still
    see your original cell phone number. That is the beauty of this trick - you
    get the best features of Google Voice, without the hassle of giving out a
    new number.

    This is why GV has apps for mobile phones. Your number should never be tied
    to a device and Google Voice is helping make this possible in the future.
  • Thanks Eric! Just set it up. Super simple.
  • No problem - the auto transcription is a little wonky, but you can't beat
    the price!
  • ihaveacar
    Hmmm - on my US Cellular account, I have to use *72+number to forward the call - and *720 turns it back off - I learned this by trial and error, *74+number didn't work.
  • Thank you for sharing with others.
  • donr1
    I tried the forwarding but if someone calls me when I'm already on the phone they are getting a busy signal instead of going to voicemail. Are you having this problem?
  • Matt
    If you have Sprint, be aware that there are charges associated with using the call forwarding features described above. In just 5 days, my account racked up almost $20 in additional fees. The Sprint rep I spoke with on the phone to set this up did not warn me about this before enabling the call forwarding, so make sure you ask for details first.
  • Thanks for this tip!
  • Awesome trick Eric. I'm giving it a go.
  • Thanks Eric - I have been looking for this precise info to bridge the services and devices.
  • No problem - google seems to have released this as a feature today with instructions. Nothing that new though.

    I now want to port my number to GV totally.
  • Robert
    If you do this with Sprint they will charge you .20cpm regardless. I tried to switch Vmails to youmail and they advised me of the call forwarding fees.
  • Thanks - and sorry to hear that.
  • kquade
    After doing this, I now have full Voice features. This is awesome.

    I would love a way to forward outgoing calls though. Maybe change the phones settings internally?
  • Depending on your phone there is a Google voice app for blackberry that works quite well.

    If not, you will have to wait until you can port your number directly to Google.
  • colinnwn
    Google Voice now offers this as a simple configuration, and better yet, you can set GV to still ring all your phones when someone calls your GV number directly, but if they call your cell number and it forwards to GV for voicemail, GV can skip ringing all your numbers again and answer immediately.

    To set up, go to Phones, click on "Use GV for voicemail on this device". It will ask you the carrier and give you the short code to use to turn on busy/no answer forwarding. Now open up advanced options, and chose "when someone calls this number directly, forward immediately to voicemail". Sorry if I got the wording of the selections a bit off, but I think it is clear enough to figure out how to do it.

    Also I have read several places, if you have T-mobile, and use another service for voicemail, they will give you 200 extra minutes a month. This is so you get some extra minutes for checking your messages on a non-free number. I'm not sure if you have to call and ask for it, or if it is automatically available to whatever number is your busy/no answer forwarding number, but is nice to have.
  • Mike
    Remember that call forwarding feature works like outgoing call. So if someone calls your cell phone which forwards a call too GV and you talk for 10 minutes, this will not be considered an incoming minutes, rather outgoing. With USCC for exampel, I have free incoming calls so it will put me at risk of going over.
  • This is a great point that I ran into when overseas - calls were actually
    DOUBLE the amount of expected time due to the call forwarding feature.
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