With Google Voice turning one year old and becoming available to U.S. residents, it's time to highlight the benefits to workshifters.

1. Choose a Local Number or use your existing mobile number
At my company I have the ability to forward my office phone to another number. However, the call can't be forwarded unless the number I'm forwarding to is in the same area code as my office. Nowadays, people aren't choosing to have home phones, they're using their mobile phone as their main contact number. And...why change your cell phone number if you relocate to that area code since almost all calling plans are national and don't charge long distance fees. With Google Voice, you can pick a phone number in any desired area code or zip code and set that as the forwarding number, which will automatically ring any and all phones you choose.

2. Transcribed voicemail
When you're in the plane, you can't make and receive calls over airplane wifi, but you do get internet access. If you miss a call and the caller leaves a voicemail it will be transcribed and sent to you as an e-mail, SMS, or both.

3. Visual voicemail
Having visual voicemail is such a time saver. I can see who called, when, see the message as a transcription, archive it, and not have to dial in and listen to a string of messages. Get in, get the info, and get out!

4. Personalized voicemail greetings
This is one of the BEST options; personalized voicemail. All you gmail contacts and groups are accessible through Google Voice. You have options to create personalized voicemails for groups (family, work, friends) or for individuals. Changing the voicemail message is quick, easy, and instant; taking less than a minute. It's especially useful if your work calls are forwarding to your Google Voice number because you can record the same greeting you have on your office phone and the caller/client won't know the difference.

How do you use Google Voice?

Photo credit: Google