I have come across many people who are not familiar with Google voice and even more people who do not tap its full potential. Google Voice is a call enhancement service. For example, if you have two mobile phone numbers and one home phone numbers, you can forward calls to all these numbers to your Google Voice number (Get your google voice number at voice.google.com). Google voice also transcribes your voice mails and sends them as e-mail and text to you. Google voice app, available on all major mobile OS, makes managing your voice mails even more convenient. If all that Google voice does is let you manage your voice mails, I wouldn’t be writing about it now, would I? You can find the entire list of Google voice features at this link: . But there is one really cool thing you could do with Google voice which is not listed in that link. You could make calls from Gtalk to any number in U.S and Canada for free. You could also do the same from your Google voice app on your mobile phone. But the call made from Google voice app get routed through your mobile number. Though the calls you make through Google voice is free, you cannot make that call unless you have cell phone reception. But by installing a free app called Groove IP, you could make free calls through Google voice to any number in U.S and Canada if you are connected to wi-fi even without cell phone reception. You are also saving your minutes in this process. The only trade off is, the recipient will not receive your mobile number but instead your Google voice number. Google gives an option to port your mobile number as your Google voice number. If this is done, then all the calls through Google voice will appear as your mobile number on the recipients phone. A paid version of the Groove IP app lets you make calls even over mobile data connection. The app developer claims, it consumes about 1.2mb of data per minute to make a call through Groove IP. So all you need is a mobile data plan and you could make free calls anytime, anywhere using Groove IP and Google Voice.
