Google Voice?

[Kellie Poodle]

Has anyone used Google Voice on a river cruise?

 

I am thinking of forwarding my phones to Google Voice and just reading them as text messages on the netbook with WiFi. We will have a Global phone that can make calls from Russia, but the per minute charges are very steep and I was thinking that Google Voice might be the way to go to get messages while not wasting minutes retrieving them.

 

Any thoughts?

[willcodeforfun]

Kellie Poodle, I still haven't been on a river cruise (hopefully soon!), but I do use Google Voice. The transcriptions of messages are not always intelligible, depending on the accent of the speaker and the quality of call reception. You can have the transcriptions emailed to you, which I prefer to text messages (on my AT&T service the text message can get broken into several parts if the transcription is long). Depending on your data service, if you can access the internet using WiFi, I would think it would be even better to just go to google.com/voice and read the transcriptions on that web page, because then you can play the message from there if you can't understand the transcription -- does that make sense, or am I misunderstanding your question?

 

You probably already have Google Voice set up, but I'm happy to answer other questions about it if you don't. I love it and use it all the time.

[Kellie Poodle]

Kellie Poodle, I still haven't been on a river cruise (hopefully soon!), but I do use Google Voice. The transcriptions of messages are not always intelligible, depending on the accent of the speaker and the quality of call reception. You can have the transcriptions emailed to you, which I prefer to text messages (on my AT&T service the text message can get broken into several parts if the transcription is long). Depending on your data service, if you can access the internet using WiFi, I would think it would be even better to just go to google.com/voice and read the transcriptions on that web page, because then you can play the message from there if you can't understand the transcription -- does that make sense, or am I misunderstanding your question?

 

You probably already have Google Voice set up, but I'm happy to answer other questions about it if you don't. I love it and use it all the time.

 

Thanks so much for the offer of help. I probably need it.

 

I have a Google Voice account and phone number. What I want to do is:

 

1)forward my home phone to my cell phone (which I will have turned off on the trip) The cell phone is the number set up on my Google Voice account and checked.

 

2) I then want to forward my cell phone to Google Voice. I have the directions on how to forward a call on Verizon.

 

3) I want to log into my Google Voice Account on my netbook and use the ship's WiFi to read the messages that have been transcribed into text.

 

I think I set it up correctly, but I'm not sure.

 

PS: I am transferring DH's number to the global phone so we can make outgoing calls when needed, but I don't want to be billed for answering any voice-mail from incoming calls.

 

This make sense?

[willcodeforfun]

Hmm, your use of Google Voice sounds different than mine, so I might not be understanding something, but I don't understand how the call will go to Google Voice with that setup. If you have the ability to forward a number, wouldn't you need to forward the home phone to the Google Voice phone number in order to get your messages on Google Voice?

 

Edited: now I understand that you will use wifi to log in to google.com/voice and read the transcriptions, and you'll be able to listen as well if your netbook has speakers. I misunderstood and thought that you were planning to have text messages sent to your phone.

[roger62305]

Why not just use your net-book for sending e-mail? We was able to send e-mails with attached pictures to most of our friends in the US using our iPad for just the WiFi ship access charge. If you get too technical you run the chance of something not working.

 

Roger

[Kellie Poodle]

I know I can send emails from my netbook. What I want to do is get any telephone messages and not have to use cell phone minutes to hear them.