More Google Voice Tricks

Previously I've written about how to use Google Voice and Sipgate or Gizmo5 to make free phone calls from your PC to anywhere inside the US.  Last night I was playing around with Google Voice and tried out some additional features.

Call Forwarding.... when someone calls my Google Voice account phone number, I am able to forward that call to multiple devices.  For grins, I had my land line, the soft (VoIP) phone on my PC, and both my cell phone and my wife's cell phone ringing on incoming calls.  Whichever device answers the call first, controls the call and the other devices stop ringing.  Pretty neat and pretty useful for those who want to be available all the time.  If no one answers the call, Google Voice will act as an answering machine and record a message from the caller.

Text messaging.... text message responses initiated through Google Voice can also be delivered to multiple mobile devices.  So if I initiate a conversation with one of my sons, his responses can be delivered to both my cell phone and my wife's.  And the whole conversation will be captured in Google Voice.

Recording conversations.... Google Voice is also capable of recording phone conversations by pressing 4 on any device that received a call to your Google Voice number.  A word of caution, though, this is not legal in all states unless all parties consent to being recorded.  This is especially true where I live in the state of Maryland (remember Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinski; the only person that went to jail in that whole sordid affair was Linda Tripp for recording phone conversations). 

If anyone else knows any great Google Voice tricks that I have missed, please feel free to educate me.