Attention filtering with Google Voice

You use email filters to limit what comes into your inbox, right?.  But what about phone calls? I’ve been using Google Voice for a little while and have found it handy at filtering which phone calls come to my attention.

First of all, what is Google Voice?  It’s an alternate phone number from Google, complete with texting and voicemail.  You should sign up for one, to use as a home phone, an office phone, or just an alternate number to give people.  In any case, the methods I describe here work with both your new number and the number you already have.

When you sign up for GV, you can associate it with a number of phones, which means that when someone calls your GV number, it will ring on whatever phone(s) you want.  You can also use GV’s voicemail features with your old number.

Once you’re set up, go to Settings, and Voicemail & Text

You will see here that you can record several different voicemail messages for different groups or individuals.

Then go to Groups

Here you can set up different behaviors for different groups.  For me, most people get my default message, telling them they can email or text me if they like (thus freeing up my voicemail and eliciting potentially quicker result).  But my friends get a shorter message, and some groups can get screened.  Others get blocked altogether.

I find this happy for blocking bill collectors or solicitors, and sending them straight to voicemail.  If you want to be more restrictive, you can send everyone straight to voicemail except people in your “Friends” group, ensuring that your phone rings only when someone you know calls you.  Everything else can wait.

Another cool attention saving feature is voice transcription.  It will transcribe each voicemail and either text or email it to you, so you see the vm before listening to it, which also saves time.  The transcription is often terrible, but you can usually get the main idea from it.

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