For fans of GrandCentral, the launch of Google Voice last week was a long time in the making. We at ooma were excited to see what GrandCentral had evolved into and we were not disappointed. GrandCentral brought a new world of intelligence and connectivity to the phones you use and Google Voice takes it to the next level. Their feature list is impressive.
Although we differ in our approach, ooma has always shared the same vision of bringing better services, enhanced productivity and a more fluid experience to voice communication. Hopefully this is evident in our product and the features we offer as part of ooma Premier.
So what does Google Voice have to do with ooma anyway? For starters, it is important to understand Google Voice doesn’t provide phone service – it works over the phone service you already have. Whether it is your home phone, cell phone, work phone or all three, Google Voice still needs to reach you at a phone. That’s where we come in. What better phone service to use at home than a free one?
Now given that Google Voice already does so much, how does one make it better? For one, we make it a whole lot more convenient to use. With ooma Premier’s Google Voice Extensions, we can automatically show your Google Voice caller-ID when you make a call, no need to use the web site or call into Google Voice just to do that. You can also check your Google Voice messages with a touch of a button, just like using an answering machine. And with ooma, you don’t need to pick up your phone to hear who is calling. We’ll play the announcement and message over the speaker for you – pick up the phone only if you really want to answer. Finally, if you don’t want to go through the hassle of switching to yet another new phone number, use your existing ooma number (or port your number to ooma) and we’ll forward it to Google Voice. Your friends and family will be none the wiser! You’ll still be able to answer calls at home thanks to the Instant Second Line.
So there’s a sneak peek at what’s coming to ooma Premier. Have an idea that you’d like to share about how ooma and Google Voice can work better together? Chime in below!
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This is great…any idea when this will be available?
We’re targeting summer for the initial release of Google Voice Extensions.
How early in the third quarter do you expect to start selling the Telo phones?
Telo will be available before the holiday season of this year.
Need any beta testers???
This sounds great – I am both a Google Voice and ooma user. Let me know if you need any beta testers!
i would also be more than happy to be a beta tester. I have a Google Voice/GrandCentral account. please contact me through my email
Sounds good but really, I’m more interested in the Ooma/Skype combination. Whould it be possible to call skype contacts from Ooma?
I am interested in ooma and skype.Please let me know about the release. I am waiting to switch over from another from another provider
This sounds great. I am also a GV and ooma user. I would like to participate in the beta if available
Will Ooma customers need upgraded hardware for this?
I was going to purchase the Ooma System but am hesitant now with the upcoming Telo. I would love to be a beta tester. Let me know-
I’m a google voice/ooma user also. I’d be interested in being a beta tester.
I love ooma and with GV It will work great. I also will love to be a beta tester, let me know.
I use Google Voice and I recently bought an Ooma. I am a bit worried that the Telo wil obsolete the original Ooma. Will the Ooma be supported? I am willing to beta test the Telo and compare to Ooma.
I have to say, I read about Ooma on TechCrunch the other day and I almost immediately drove to Best Buy to grab it. But then I read about Telo – and it really does look quite a bit better. It also saves me from having to buy different brand phones (currently in my house, we only have cell phones). So I’ll be waiting until the Telo comes out — and waiting to be invited to Google Voice!
I will happily give Google a private invite to our new web app, if they give me Voice. Somehow, I don’t think they’re listening…
-Chris from Bloom Apps
If this functionality comes out soon, and works as described in the NON-premier version of Ooma, then I will immediately go buy an Ooma!
I was about to purchase Ooma hub too.
After I found out Telo, I have decided to wait as theTelo price will be the same as the current one. Unless, Ooma gives out credit for current owner. I will definitey wait.
Hey, It’s summer and I just got GV. I bought Ooma because of the “summer” release of GV extensions. Can we get an idea of when it will be available? (please don’t say… in a few weeks).
Thanks-
Is there any definite release date for Ooma Telo? I would love to be a beta tester as well.
Just ordered the regular Ooma. Would love to get some ideas about when the Telo will be available (of course would like to be a beta tester for the Telo). Any release info would be nice.
Tom
Did I just hear the rustling of an Ooma principal handing out Beta passes. Hey! send one over yonder. I’ve got GV.
thanks,
…screamerUSA
I’ve got Google Voice as well. Beta testing would be great, but mostly I’m interested in knowing when we can port number to Google Voice or enhance our Ooma experience by further integrating the two services as mentioned on the blog posting.
Thanks!
Anxious to starting using my Ooma hub with my GV account. Hoping “summer” means July.
A great feature would be for the Ooma device to pass along GV voicemail indications to the phone. So, my home phone will indicate (blinking light on phone) if I have Google Voice voicemail, as well as Ooma voicemail. Possible?
I have a decent VoIP knowledge and i am also a GV user from last 1+ year. I would be interested to participate in Beta as well.
Thanks
If you need a beta tester, please count me in. I’ve had a GV number for over a year now.
Thanks!
I just got my ooma system and am dying to use it with Google Voice. If there is a beta currently I would love to be in it. If not, any word on release?
Thanks for a GREAT new way to make calls.
We have an unboxing up on Gear Diary and will be doing a full review soon. LOVE this thing!
GV+Ooma sounds like an unbeatable combination. Count me in for beta testing if you need.
I have used GV since its inception (grandcentral beta) and currently port it to the iPhone and follow me functions globally (I travel) I am also already a Premier Ooma member. I am a HUGE fan of both OOMA and Google Voice this seems like a natural fit, I have used Magic Jack, Vonage, you name it. Please let us know if you need help.
I was part of the ooma beta program and I’ve had a GV account for a while. I would be happy to try out the ooma/GV integration.
Thank you.
I’ve called tech support (They have never even heard of this product (or this blog post!!)), I’ve sent emails (with no answer). It appears that this product is complete vapor ware which is sad. The combination of GV+Ooma sounds amazing and I would be telling all of my friends to sign up for it.
It looks like this was some brainchild of someone who left the company and now it’s just dying on the vine…
I bought Ooma after seeing this blog post specifically for the Google Voice extensions, assuming that it was already live. Level 1 support still does not seem to know about this but when they’ve followed up, I’ve heard “summer,” “end of summer” and “in the works.” I’m a premier member but won’t renew if this feature isn’t active soon.
It would be nice for a definitive word on this, even if it’s “not gonna happen.”
I too will be leaving Ooma Premier if this product is not rolled out soon. No reason to keep paying $10 a month when Google Voice has everything I need. Though it sure would have been nice though to have everything integrated. OH WELL.
I will be getting Ooma Premier as soon as I find out that the Google Voice extensions are rolled out… Oh Yeah!
Any updates on when this will be done? Seems to be a bit tardy…
I’m waiting for this feature before I buy a Telo. Any updates? It has been 8 months since this was announced.
GV + Ooma was supposed to be live last summer..? so what happend. wish we could get honest date range on when it will be out. they need to keep packing the features, and GV, if they want to keep premier subscribers like me.
I don’t think GV and Ooma will ever work together. Seems like GV would hurt rev for ooma. I am not happy that you need a premier acct to get you VM messages fw to email. This is crazy. I got my Ooma a year ago and now everything is changing.
I did some reading, sounds like it is just taking longer than expected
I sent an inquiry about the Google Voice extensions to Oooma Support back in early October. The response I received was “It will be done by the end of this year.”
End of year is getting pretty close. Like others who have commented, I will be dropping my Premier subscription if the Google Voice extensions don’t arrive soon.
I thought one of the perks of being Premier subscribers was “Be first in line: Get exclusive access to try out new features and hear about future promotions.” (from http://www.ooma.com/premier/features )
They should do a better job at keeping their plans secret on their future offerings until they are ready to deliver on them. The ideas are great but when you create high expectations and do not deliver stuff will backfire.
I love my OOMA but I am having a hard time figuring out how they can have such a deficient customer service. It just has such a negative impact on such an awsome piece of equipment.
Probably more google’s fault than OOMA. Google still doesn’t have a lot of the google voice stuff nailed down (people have a difficult time making home-brew phone apps for it). Still OOMA shouldn’t be making promises that they can’t keep (especially when it is something that is out of their control).
Also, seeing as OOMA premiere can multicall cell phones and the like, it seems like it has pretty much has every feature that google voice does other than access to your google address book (which could be fixed, they could allow you to load in address book information in the common formats) and doesn’t do text transcriptions (which suck anyways I can only make out the gist of someone’s message 1/2 of the time with GV). They also need to ad conditional calling features (to tell it which phones to ring/when, but that should be easy enough).
If OOMA would just release apps (for WebOS, IPhone and Android) to make checking voicemails easier I wouldn’t have a need for GV integration.
Oh also I’d pay $10 to have google not try to read my voicemails (although with how poor their text transcription is I guess I don’t have much to worry about).
Wow, what happened? Things change so quickly and this year is no different. I was all set for Telo, and am still thinking of it, but Google Voice is almost everything you need, so it seems. Maybe the Google Voice extensions will offer more than what they originally promised, but agreed with everyone else, they need to do a better job of managing expectations. Leaving everyone high and dry is just fueling negativity..
I will also be dropping my Premier subscription if the Google Voice extensions don’t arrive VERY soon.
Update: Ooma support is now telling me the GV extensions will be ready “next year”. This is despite them telling me in October they would be ready before the end of 2009.
I’ve been using GV as my primary phone number. All I want from the GV extensions is the ability to make direct calls with my Ooma phone and have my GV number show on the recipient’s caller ID instead of my Ooma number.
Ooma? where are you? we want to see you have the same drive, determination, and passion for your products that google has… if you can’t keep updating, innovating, and improving both generations of ooma, and adding google voice and other features, you are going to continue losing your customers… do you even read you own blogs or update them? WE WANT you to SUCCEED! but we want to know that you want it too! Google has bought out a VOIP service, and will soon start offer free calling, how will you compete with this service starting soon, and with all the features Google voice has? I hope you make some offers to have google buy you, because they could end up saving you, or taking you out..very soon.. I hope you will be around for another 25+ years, but things are changing very quickly.. as Google knows you have to stay ahead, or your dead..
I am one more customer who likes the Ooma phone service, but has had the same disappointing customer service experience as many of you. My caller ID with Ooma is still incorrect after 9 months of owning the system, even after repeated support tickets.
I also purchased premiere based on the Ooma promise of rolling out Google Voice Extensions last year. When a company is selling equipment and services by publishing incorrect information, that seems very close to false advertising and fraud.
Like most of you, I want the company to succeed. If the real goal of the company is to be viable long-term, then you must fix your customer service and integrity issues.
Arrgghhh – I purchased my ooma hub based on this posting – thinking that all I would need was ooma premier (which I paid for this year). Only to find out this week that the Google extensions for Ooma Premier are for Ooma Telo customers – not Ooma Hub owners. Besides that – starting today, people calling my house get a busy signal. I tried setting it to forward to my Google Voice number (which calls my cell), but, that didn’t fix anything…. Arrgg – a wasted $300!!!
Sign me – a very displeased customer!!!!