With new Google Voice, 1 number rings all your phones

ByABC News
July 16, 2009, 4:38 PM

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Mike Caulfield became the most popular guy in his inner circle last week. He got one of the hotly coveted Google Voice phone numbers, and his pals didn't.

"There was a lot of jealousy from my friends, who've been waiting for their number," says Caulfield, an instructional designer at Keene State College in New Hampshire.

Google Voice is Google's attempt to remake how we think of the phone. It lets you use one new phone number to tie together your various numbers: cellphone, home phone, business line. Friends call your Google number, and all the other phones ring you choose which one to answer.

Voice mail flows to all of the phones, along with a free transcription by Google.

Wylie Burt, who works in Detroit for General Motors, received his Google Voice number last week and alerted his 300-plus phone contacts that he had a new number.

Once his contacts commit to using it, the new number will consolidate his four other phone lines: work, home, cell and a separate car phone. "It's very possible that this way, I'll be able to get back to you sooner," Burt says.

Google announced Google Voice in March. It is rolling it out gradually to people who request a number. Last week the company began releasing "tens of thousands" of numbers a day to fulfill those requests, says Vincent Paquet, a Google senior product manager. Demand is such that Google Voice invites are being auctioned for as much as $100 currently on eBay.

Paquet says Google is rolling the service out slowly to make sure everything works and doesn't crash. Registrations are still being accepted at voice.google.com. Paquet says anyone who signs up should receive a Google Voice invitation within "a few weeks."

Today, the company is launching Google Voice apps for BlackBerry and Google Android phones. There's no app for the iPhone yet, but Paquet says Google is working on it.

The app lets you make a call and have it show up in Caller ID as coming from your Google number, not your cellphone. "The benefit is that once you start using the Google Voice number, you have the one number that brings together all your phones," Paquet says. "You can take the call from anywhere."