If you have a Google Voice account, you can set Phone Amego to place calls through Google
Voice so that your Google Voice number will appear as the caller to the person you are calling.
This feature logs in to your Google Voice account over the web so it can work with any phone
you have designated to receive calls via Google Voice including your office phone or iPhone. It
does not require Bluetooth. When placing a call, Google Voice will first ring the local "Number to
Ring" you specify (your phone number), and then call the outgoing number you selected from
your Address Book.
To use Google Voice, you must setup your account information as shown below in the Google
Voice Setup box.
A "Number to Ring" is one of the numbers you have configured Google Voice to ring when
somebody calls you on your Google Voice number. Phone Amego will retrieve these from your
Google Voice account when you press login.
Since you are using Google
Voice, you probably have more
than one forwarding number to
ring such as your cell phone and
your home phone. When placing
a call, you must select which of
your numbers you want Google
Voice to ring. If there is more
than one number, Phone Amego
will add a "Number to Ring"
submenu to the status bar
making it easy to select the
desired number without going
through the Phone Amego
window.
If you want to change which numbers Google Voice is configured to ring, you can press and hold
Option while clicking on any "Number to Ring" from the menu. Phone Amego will open a Safari
window, login to your Google Voice account, and display the "Phones" configuration page. From
there you can select which phones you want to ring.
Your Google Voice password is stored in the default Keychain. If you upgrade to a new version of
Phone Amego, the Keychain may ask you if you wish to allow the "new" application to access
your Keychain. Phone Amego updates that are downloaded automatically are signed by the
developer using a private key, so this is quite safe.
Expert Tip
When placing a call, Google Voice will normally ringback your local phone, and then ring the
number you are calling after you have answered. If you use Google Voice with a speakerphone
that can be answered from your Mac, Phone Amego will automatically answer the ringback call
from Google Voice on the first ring so the call will appear to go through directly.
Google Chat Call Notification
Phone Amego does not provide call notification when the receiving point is Gmail in your web
browser. Normally Phone Amego works with telephone devices that can be polled or provide
notification for inbound calls. Google Voice does not provide a published notification mechanism
and polling would be prohibitively expensive consuming many megabytes per day. The work
around is to use Google Voice with a telephone device Phone Amego can monitor. One clever
solution is the OBi100 Voice Service Bridge and VoIP adaptor. This allows you to place or receive
Google Voice calls directly from an analog telephone handset or VoIP phone (no computer
required).
Google Voice Chat (under construction)
Google has begun beta testing a chat service that allows you to place calls directly from your
computer using a web browser plugin. To use this, walk through the setup steps in the GV Chat
Setup box and then select GV Chat when placing a call. Phone Amego will use a WebKit window
to access the chat feature within Gmail as if you had done it yourself from Safari. You must have
a Gmail account that uses the same login as your Google Voice account.
Notice the second step in GV Chat Setup is to enable UI Scripting so that Phone Amego can click
and type in a WebKit window the same as you would. This is normally done by selecting "Enable
access for assistive devices" in System Preferences.
Disclaimer
While I expect to keep this feature available, Google Chat is currently in public beta, so it could
be withdrawn or changed to no longer be compatible with Phone Amego.
Using Google Voice Directly from your Cell Phone
When you place a call using Phone Amego, your Google Voice number will appear as the caller to
the person you are calling. When you do not have access to Phone Amego, you can achieve the
same result by calling your Google Voice number, waiting for it to answer, pressing "2", and then
dialing the number you want to call.
I programmed my GV number as speed dial 2 on my cell phone so I can press one button to call
Google Voice, press 2 again, and then select a number from my phones address book I want to
call. Depending on your cell phone, these details will vary.
Outbound Caller ID with Google Voice
Your outbound caller ID will normally not include your name when using Google Voice (since the
address record of your calling line is held with Google). You can add your own listing at
www.whitepages.com which will be visible in MSN whitepages and Phone Amego (if you enable
using whitepages.com for reverse lookups).