Setup

1. Sign up for Google Voice! It’s still invite only but invites are not that hard to come by.

2. Pick your new Google Voice phone number. If you use your existing cell phone number you cannot send free texts.

3. Go into Settings and Voicemail Notifications make sure you uncheck Send SMS text to moble. Also make sure you check email the the message to: “your email”

• I learned this step the hard way because I had all the Google voice texts send to my SMS inbox. I thought since it was through GV it was free. Unfortunately it wasn’t and I went over my text limit for the first month I used it.

4. Install the Google Voice app on your Blackberry here http://www.google.com/mobile/voice/

• input your Google account name and password associated with Google Voice

Sending Texts

Your texts will be sent from your Google Voice number and not your cell phone number. So your Google Voice number will show up as the sender on the recipients phone.

1. Go to your blackberry contacts phone book, scroll to the person you want to text
2. Press the Blackberry button to bring up the menu and scroll all the way to the top of the menu
3. Choose SMS using Google Voice
4. You will be taken to Google voice app and type and send your text and that’s it!

Replying to Texts

1. MAKE SURE your texts are going into your Email inbox. If they are going into your SMS inbox IT’S NOT FREE
2. Reply to the text just like you would an email on your Blackberry
3. Before you send. Press the Blackberry button to bring up the menu and select “Delete Original Text.” If you do not do this your recipient will receive all the threaded info in your single text like the original text, and the email information. This usually would cause 2 or 3 emails because the text box cannot handle all the info. Deleting the original text ensures that your recipient will ONLY receive the message you sent.

This is kind of alot to remember but it’s ALOT cheaper than getting an unlimited text plan. I still have the cheapest text plan only for those people who I rarely text and dont know my Google Voice number.

The awesome thing about Google Voice is that I can see all my texts on my computer screen. I can easily search through texts if I need to pull one up. And I can easily delete multiple texts at once instead of individual texts or clearing out the WHOLE inbox on my phone.

I highly suggest setting up Voicemail through Google voice also. This can be used with your cell phone number. Great thing about it is that it transcribes your voicemails and sends it to your inbox as soon as the person leaves you a voicemail. This way you can instantly see if the missed call was really important or not without having to go into your voicemail inbox. Just like with text you can listen to all your voicemails on your computer. You can also delete them on your computer. No more constantly pressing 7 to clear your inbox. I haven’t used my Verizon voicemail box since September.

I hope these tips save you time and money like it has for me. Drop me a line if you have any questions.

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