In August, Google (News
- Alert)
announced that its integration of its Google Voice with Gmail had already hit 1 million customers within 24 hours of the launch. This rapid adoption demonstrated that the demand was definitely there. Not one to only tease customers, Google took its innovation one step further, introducing VoIP call recording by allowing users to record inbound Google Voice calls.
A recent
report highlighted the virtues of this addition. This report acknowledged, however, that Google is taking the VoIP call recording one step further by rolling out the features more broadly. This is a strong move as just because VoIP call recording was possible, it wasn’t completely intuitive. To make use of the VoIP call recording function through Google Voice, you had to hit the number ‘4’ on the keypad. The feature can only be launched when you are on an inbound call and a verbal notification is given to both parties on the call that VoIP call recording has been activated. (While the one conducting the recording may not want the other to know – this is illegal in many states and better if all parties involved are on the same page.)
The integration of Google Voice into Gmail seemed to change very little in terms of functionality – which is great for those who are already accustomed to using VoIP call recording on Google Voice. On this platform, call recording is still only available on inbound calls and the same notification is sent out to all participants when it is activated.
One difference is that this platform makes the VoIP call recording much more convenient. You don’t have to hit the ‘4’ button to record, instead a ‘record’ button rests just above the dialpad. As ‘record’ communicates to the user much better than ‘4’, more users are likely to discover that VoIP call recording is available through this platform and will utilize the feature.
Now, integration between any two Google features is a good thing, but you may not have access to everything you hope to have in the solution, no matter how innovative or intuitive it may seem. For instance, the ability to only conduct VoIP call recording on inbound calls is a limitation. In addition, it appears that this function will not work at all on voice calls that are routed directly from one Gmail contact to another – bypassing Google Voice.
These few hiccups may be annoying, but the innovations presented here – for free – still take you capabilities to a whole new level, especially where VoIP call recording is concerned. The best advice is to embrace the technology and run with it. In the meantime, leave it to Google to make improvements.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Juliana Kenny