6 Best Google Voice Alternatives

Many people have taken to Google Voice for its ability to streamline phone, email, and SMS communications. However, it has several limitations. So far it is only available in the U.S., leaving a huge number of international consumers unable to use it. Further, it is just not right for some people. They don’t like using a Google product, they don’t like the limitations, or they are just interested in another way to do things. Fortunately, there are a good number of alternatives available on the market.

The products outlined below provide a good starting point to finding a Google Voice alternative that is right for you.

RingCentral [Recommended]
Having been a leader in virtual phone systems for many years, RingCentral is a natural alternative to Google Voice. It would be fair to say that there isn’t much that RingCentral doesn’t do, and in some regards it’s more accomplished and feature-complete than Google Voice. To list everything you can do would take much too long, but some of the most interesting and useful features include both local and toll free numbers, call forwarding to any phone, call screening to reject, accept or forward the call to your voicemail, easy call recording and logging and, of course, a feature-packed virtual PBX with an automated attendant to meet and greet callers. RingCentral even offers integrated online faxing where faxes are sent and received from any Microsoft Office application, email or phone. Faxes and voicemail are received as email attachments. There’s even an official RingCentral iPhone app available on iTunes! You’d expect to pay a lot for all this (and the many other features), but you’d be wrong: RingCentral is as flexible as you need it to be at a really affordable price.

Line2
Line2 adds an additional phone line to your cell phone. This can be very beneficial to people who want to keep their personal and business lives separate, but want the convenience of having only one phone. Currently available for iPhone and BlackBerry, Line2 provides the flexibility to select and 800 number, a local number or transfer and existing number. Both lines work anywhere off of the cellular network and support a variety of business features including call screening, auto attendant, and conferencing. To top it all off, international calls start at just 2¢ per minute.

3Jam
3Jam offers a powerful solution to streamlining and simplifying phone communications. The program allows you to keep your existing phone number or pick a number from any location in the U.S. The selected number can be used for all your phones; cell, business and home and even Skype. Incoming calls can be routed to multiple phones to ensure that you, or someone in your business, will attend to any calls. Further, SMS messages can be routed to your cell phone, email, or 3Jam’s desktop client. Dedicated group texting numbers makes it easy to quickly contact everyone who needs to be in the loop. 3Jam offers a pay-as-you-go plan that starts at $4.99 per month.

VoxOx2
VoxOx2 describes themselves as a Universal Communicator Service that provides more cross-media communication that Google Voice. Nearly anything you can think of that would benefit your personal and business communications is possible with VoxOx. The strength of the service comes from unifying a variety of communication channels, including phone, fax, email, texts, IM and social media outlets, all with the help of a digital personal assistant. The personal assistant gives you total control of all calls and communications. Each contact can have a customizable calling experience, and choose to reach you directly, leave a voicemail or send a fax. Conference calls of up to 20 people are possible with VoxOx. In addition, connecting and updating through social media outlets including Facebook and Twitter is possible, as well as file sharing through SMS. A free phone number and unlimited calling is possible with VoxOx, a communication solution so powerful you have to see it to believe it.

Ribbit Mobile
Ribbit Mobile is offers a similar service to Google Voice. Users can keep their own phone number and link to as many other accounts as they would like including home phone and business phone. Calls can be made from a web browser and incoming calls can ring on multiple phones and on Skype. Further, when someone calls, you can automatically see their latest social media updates as well as their LinkedIn profile and Flickr photos. The biggest difference to take note of is that Ribbit Mobile is a platform and allows Developers to create widgets to enhance your account. Two versions are currently available, a free Basic version and a Pro version. iPhone and BlackBerry apps for the service are under development.

YouMail
YouMail empowers voicemail by providing many convenient features to make voicemail more customizable and accessible, as well as linking voicemail with email. The service provides visual voicemail for your smartphone or your computer. A great feature is voice-to-text transcription, which creates a text message from voicemails for situations when you can’t answer or use you phone. Further, the transcription feature allows you to respond to voicemails. Voicemail can be completely controlled and customized by setting a unique and personal voicemail greeting for each contact. Voicemails can be forwarded along to other contacts to keep business partners and family members in the loop quickly and easily. Lastly, voicemail is sent to email to help you gather all of your communications in one place and access voicemail when you do not have reception. A basic version of YouMail is completely free, and additional features start at $1.99 per month.