Why such strong demand? A couple of reasons. First, Google Voice users cannot currently receive calls on their desktop. Second, they can’t make phone calls directly from their desktop (without the use of an actual phone).

The VoxOx Alternative

VoxOx gives out a free U.S. phone number upon sign-up in the U.S. (and dozens of other supported countries). This number rings the user’s desktop application and it can also be forwarded to other numbers, but that’s not necessary in this scenario.

So, once someone adds the free VoxOx phone number to the list of phone numbers they maintain in Google Voice, the user gains the ability to pick up a phone call on their desktop. They also gain the ability to make VoIP calls directly from their desktop without the use of an additional phone. 

Receiving Calls to Your Desktop

Here’s the process of how to set this up. If you’re a Google Voice user:

1. Sign up for VoxOx and then download the desktop client. During the sign-up process, you’ll be asked to SMS-verify from your mobile phone to activate your free phone number. Make sure you complete this step to get your free number.

2. Sign into Google Voice. Under Settings / Phones, add your VoxOx phone number and name it VoxOx. You can choose “mobile” as the type of phone because VoxOx enables you to send and receive SMS text messages:

Credit: Google Voice

3. Confirm within Google Voice that VoxOx has been added as one of your phones:

Credit: Google Voice

That’s it for receiving calls on your desktop!  Your VoxOx desktop application will now ring anytime someone calls your Google Voice phone number. (And it’s all free of charge.)

Making Calls from Your Desktop

You can also dial out directly from your desktop (via the VoxOx softphone keypad), without the use of a physical phone. Just go to Keypad, and dial:

VoxOx Keypad

You can also set your Google Voice number as your caller ID by going to the Apps Tab and clicking on “Spoof Calls”:

VoxOx-to-VoxOx calls are free. Calls to telephone lines cost one penny per minute in the U.S. and Canada, and variable pennies per minute to other countries. (Though we hook you up with some initial credit when you sign-up.) 

Enjoy VoxOx as a seamless alternative for those who want a Google Voice desktop-like service right now… and give our other features a try too, like multi-protocol chat, social networking integration, fax, file sharing (up to 100 mb!), our real-time translation tool ”Universal Translator,” and much more. Check out our video tutorial on our features here.

Natasha Grach is a PR pro by day and singer by night -- when not telling the world about VoxOx, she can be found on stage at some of San Diego’s favorite musical theater venues. She is also a travel junkie. Her favorite countries include Turkey, Israel, Spain, UK, Italy, Russia, Lithuania. She’ll be using VoxOx SMS CallBack on her next trip around the globe!

follow natasha.grach twitter.com/natashagrach

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Well, that just happens to be our specialty! VoxOx lets you manage all your phones from a single phone number. With our call routing feature, VoxOx Find Me, you can create a common link between all your phone numbers – mobile, home, work phone, and so on – and then set all your phones to ring in sequence or simultaneously.

Say you’re in the kitchen preparing for your 4^th of July BBQ this weekend. You hear your cell phone ring and realize that you have no idea where it is! You may feel an urge to run like a chicken with its head cut off to find it and see who’s calling, but then you remember – you’ve set up Find Me to route the call to your home phone next. So, you can just dry off your hands and get ready to pick up the kitchen landline phone. Relaxing thought, no?

This type of rolling call forwarding can be really useful beyond party planning. With Find Me, you can be more accessible to the “VIPs” in your life (spouse, kids, elderly grandparents). You just give them your VoxOx number, and they’ll be able to reach you anywhere — work, mobile, home, a cabin in the woods — without having to dial a long list of phone numbers. Or, you can use Find Me for your business contacts. Say you want to be accessible to work colleagues and clients when you’re not at your desk, but you don’t want to give out your personal cell phone number. Just give out your VoxOx number, and turn on Find Me during the work week. This can also be handy for business travelers, as Find Me can forward calls anywhere, even to a hotel room overseas!  

So, here’s how you set up Find Me:

• Go to Tools -> Settings  -> Phone  -> Find Me, and enter all your other phone numbers in the order you’d like them to ring: 

• The numbers you select with a check-mark will ring in sequence.
• If you prefer to have all your phones ring simultaneously, then select the “Call Numbers Simultaneously” option.
• Set the number of seconds you want each phone to ring and then hit “Apply.”
• If you don’t pick up, ultimately the call will go to VoxOx voicemail. Read about how to access your VoxOx voice messages here.  
• You can add or remove phone numbers any time by coming back to this Find Me window within the VoxOx client, or by calling your VoxOx number, entering your 4 digit pin code and selecting the “Settings” option. 

Don’t forget that in order for VoxOx Find Me to kick in, you need to provide callers with a VoxOx phone number. This doesn’t mean that you need to get rid of any of your existing numbers – just think of the VoxOx number as your “umbrella” number that reaches all your phones, but if you want to be reached specifically on your cell phone or another device, then by all means, give that number out. If you’d rather not provide a new number at all, there’s a way to forward your mobile phone number to VoxOx.

So that’s it – you have all the tools to be totally accessible to all your 4^th of July party guests this weekend and beyond! Now go change your RSVP phone number on your Evite to your VoxOx number, take a deep breath, relax, and host your party with ease.

Have you tried Find Me yet? Please share a comment here about how it has helped you or someone you know, we would love to hear your story!

Natasha Grach is a PR pro by day and singer by night -- when not telling the world about VoxOx, she can be found on stage at some of San Diego’s favorite musical theater venues. She is also a travel junkie. Her favorite countries include Turkey, Israel, Spain, UK, Italy, Russia, Lithuania. She’ll be using VoxOx SMS CallBack on her next trip around the globe!

follow natasha.grach twitter.com/natashagrach

follow VoxOx twitter.com/voxox

(1) Phone call – by calling into the VoxOx service from any phone (and dialing *YourCode#)
(2) SMS – by receiving a text link to your mobile phone
(3) Email — by receiving an mp3 file sent to your email address
(4) VoxOx desktop client – by checking the Messages icon in the Apps tab

Pretty handy for those of us who are always on the go… isn’t that everyone these days?  Check out the below instructions on how to set all this up! 

First, set up your voicemail

• Set up your 4 digit pin code for retrieving voicemail (Tools -> Settings -> Phone -> Voicemail). And don’t forget to hit “Apply” when done:

• Once you’re set up, you can access your voicemails via the FIRST of the four ways — simply CALL your VoxOx number from any phone. Just press *PIN# (example: *5555#) and you’re in! BUT, we’re not done yet…

Next, set up your voicemail notifications

• In order to be notified when you have a new voice message, make sure that you have notifications set up. We recommend selecting both email and SMS notification options, and don’t forget to hit “Apply” when done  (Tools -> Settings -> Notifications): 

• The great thing about setting up your email and SMS notifications is that you also get the option to retrieve your voicemails through those channels, and hence the SECOND and THIRD ways to access your messages:
  • EMAIL notifications come with the voice message attached as an mp3 file, which you can play right away in your email… plus you can forward it too!
  • SMS notifications come with a link that you can click on to play the message instantly on your mobile phone. Note: To use this message playback option, your phone does need to be Internet-enabled so that you can click the link.

That’s it, you’re all set up! 

• But don’t forget there’s a FOURTH way to get your voicemails, and that’s by checking your VoxOx DESKTOP CLIENT (Apps tab -> Voicemail):   

Congratulations! You are now fully equiped to never miss a voicemail again.

Keep on Voxing.

Natasha Grach is a PR pro by day and singer by night -- when not telling the world about VoxOx, she can be found on stage at some of San Diego’s favorite musical theater venues. She is also a travel junkie. Her favorite countries include Turkey, Israel, Spain, UK, Italy, Russia, Lithuania. She’ll be using VoxOx SMS CallBack on her next trip around the globe!

follow natasha.grach twitter.com/natashagrach

follow VoxOx twitter.com/voxox

All you do is you paste a URL for the video or graphic you want to send into the area where you type your text chats. Hit enter, and the URL will appear as either a clickable video or an image within your chat thread. Check it out:

Cool, huh?  Well if you think so, get your buddies to download VoxOx so you can have some fun with this feature. Once you get their username, just go to “Actions”, “Add Contact” to add them to your VoxOx buddies list, and chat away!  

By the way, to make your VoxOx window look like mine, go to “View”, “Appearance” and select “Modern Bubbling”. Many other choices there too:

Enjoy and keep on Voxing!

Natasha Grach is a PR pro by day and singer by night -- when not telling the world about VoxOx, she can be found on stage at some of San Diego’s favorite musical theater venues. She is also a travel junkie. Her favorite countries include Turkey, Israel, Spain, UK, Italy, Russia, Lithuania. She’ll be using VoxOx SMS CallBack on her next trip around the globe!

follow natasha.grach twitter.com/natashagrach

follow VoxOx twitter.com/voxox

However, some folks would rather not give out a new phone number to people, and we here at VoxOx are cool with that. So, our trusted tech guys gave it some thought and found a way for you to keep your existing cell phone number and still be able to use some of the cool VoxOx perks. It works by forwarding your cell phone to VoxOx through a special set of instructions (provided below). Doing so will enable you to:

• Screen the call through the VoxOx Personal Assistant, which will ask the caller’s name
• Send the caller to voicemail, and let you Eavesdrop™ on the message as its being left – you can pick up at any time, just like those retro answering machines from the 90s!
• Record the call on-demand (*1 to start/stop recording), transfer the call to another phone (*2), and start a conference call with up to 20 people! (press *3 to add friends to your call)
• Use VoxOx voicemail, which lets you access your phone messages both via phone and online – this one’s good for folks who misplace their cell phone regularly and need to access their voicemails

Sold yet? Check out the instructions below, and remember, this is for VoxOx power users!

Instructions: How to forward your existing cell phone number to VoxOx

The instructions are a little tricky, but they work! We tried this with our CEO who has AT&T and he loves it.

(1)      Prep your VoxOx phone settings in the VoxOx client:

• Go to the General tab in Phone Settings (Tools -> Settings -> Phone -> General) and enter your name:

• Go to Tools -> Settings  -> Phone  -> Find Me. You will see your VoxOx number entered, so just enter your cell phone number after it and make sure both numbers are check-marked
• Set the number of seconds you want your VoxOx account to ring on your desktop (suggested: 1-2 seconds)
• Set the number of seconds you’d like your cell phone to ring before going to voicemail
• Where it says “Find Me”, check-mark “ring my numbers in order”:

(2) Forward your cell phone number to VoxOx:

This part is slightly different with every mobile carrier, but fairly simple to do and undo.  Below are the basic instructions, but if you have any specific questions, contact your cell phone carrier.

• With AT&T, you can forward your cell phone number with the following command:

On your cell phone, dial *004*1YOURVOXOXNUMBER*11*10# and press send.  For example: *004*13335554444*11*10#

To undo, dial ##004# on your cell phone and press send. 

• With V erizon, dial *71YOURVOXOXNUMBER on your cell and press send (Example: *713335554444); To undo, dial *73 and press send. 
• With Sprint, dial *28YOURVOXOXNUMBER on your cell and press send (Example: *283335554444); To undo, dial *38 and press send. 
• With T -Mobile, dial *004*1YOURVOXOXNUMBER# on your cell and press send (Example: *004*13335554444#); To undo, dial ##004# and press send. Note: From our research, T -Mobile seems to allow only 500 minutes of call forwarding before they charge you a fee. 

(3) THE TRICKY PART: What to do when someone calls you

You’ve followed the above instructions. Now, anytime someone calls your cell phone number, you will first hear a couple of rings on your mobile – don’t pick up. The ringing will pause for several seconds (to you it will look like you missed a call, but don’t panic, the phone will ring again). When the ringing resumes, this means that VoxOx has kicked in, so pick up and have some VoxOx fun!  As mentioned above, you can screen calls, “Eavesdrop,” record conversations, transfer your call on-the-fly, and more.

(4) Checking your voicemails

Once you’ve forwarded your mobile phone number to VoxOx, all your voicemails will now be stored in VoxOx. They are accessible online and via phone. You will be notified by text message when you have a new voicemail. Go to Notifications in (Tools -> Settings -> Notifications) and make sure that your voicemail notifications by email and text are check marked.

If you want to retrieve messages via phone, set up your 4 digit pin code (Tools -> Settings -> Phone -> Voicemail). Once you’re set up, you can call your VoxOx number anytime and press *PIN# (ex. *5555#) and you’ll get various options, including voicemail.

So there you go!  Just another way that VoxOx works hard for our loyal users. Try it and comment to let us know what you think.

Natasha Grach is a PR pro by day and singer by night -- when not telling the world about VoxOx, she can be found on stage at some of San Diego’s favorite musical theater venues. She is also a travel junkie. Her favorite countries include Turkey, Israel, Spain, UK, Italy, Russia, Lithuania. She’ll be using VoxOx SMS CallBack on her next trip around the globe!

follow natasha.grach twitter.com/natashagrach

follow VoxOx twitter.com/voxox

Now all your 2000 FB buddies are there for you in VoxOx! Chat with ‘em, use the Universal Translator to make them think you’ve learned a new language, share a 100 MB music video file, etc.… all while making calls, sending texts, emails and even faxes to your other friends who still refuse to get on Facebook.

Click here to download update.

Natasha Grach is a PR pro by day and singer by night -- when not telling the world about VoxOx, she can be found on stage at some of San Diego’s favorite musical theater venues. She is also a travel junkie. Her favorite countries include Turkey, Israel, Spain, UK, Italy, Russia, Lithuania. She’ll be using VoxOx SMS CallBack on her next trip around the globe!

follow natasha.grach twitter.com/natashagrach

follow VoxOx twitter.com/voxox

The video includes how to:

• Make and receive calls
• Text
• Set up your VoxOx Personal Assistant
• IM
• Email
• Share files (up to 100 MB!)
• Fax
• Use the VoxOx Universal Translator
• And more!

Become a VoxOx expert with our video tutorial!

Natasha Grach is a PR pro by day and singer by night -- when not telling the world about VoxOx, she can be found on stage at some of San Diego’s favorite musical theater venues. She is also a travel junkie. Her favorite countries include Turkey, Israel, Spain, UK, Italy, Russia, Lithuania. She’ll be using VoxOx SMS CallBack on her next trip around the globe!

follow natasha.grach twitter.com/natashagrach

follow VoxOx twitter.com/voxox

Click on video to view:

Natasha Grach is a PR pro by day and singer by night -- when not telling the world about VoxOx, she can be found on stage at some of San Diego’s favorite musical theater venues. She is also a travel junkie. Her favorite countries include Turkey, Israel, Spain, UK, Italy, Russia, Lithuania. She’ll be using VoxOx SMS CallBack on her next trip around the globe!

follow natasha.grach twitter.com/natashagrach

follow VoxOx twitter.com/voxox

We recently asked VoxOx users to tell us interesting ways in which they’ve used the VoxOx Universal Translator. Here’s a great story from our VoxOx Facebook fan Taryn:

My son’s friend Daniel had to write a report for his Spanish class on the history of Chile and the recent earthquake they had there. This was the first report that had to be entirely in Spanish. He wrote the report, then did his best to translate it into Spanish.

My husband and I have been excited to tell everyone about VoxOx’s new real-time translation capabilities (we’re actually new stockholders in the company – TelCentris). So, when Daniel mentioned his report, I asked him to email me the English version. I then instantly emailed it back to him through the VoxOx Universal Translator. Daniel was interested to see how it compared with the version he had translated on his own – pretty close! Helps to have an answer key to compare with (like you do at the end of a math book. =)

Then Daniel and my son Jake did a little instant messaging through the translator. Jake wrote in English and Daniel received it in Spanish. Daniel then replied in Spanish and Jake received it in English. Amazing technology! We are thrilled to be involved with such an innovative and exciting company.

Daniel ended up getting an A on the project thanks to his translation efforts. He did the work himself, but it was nice to be able to run it through the Universal Translator and instantly check his work. So, congratulations to VoxOx on your first A in 9th grade Spanish class!

So there you have it! Comment on this blog entry to let us know creative ways in which you’ve been using the VoxOx Universal Translator – first comment will receive 300 free U.S./Canada calling minutes…

P.S. You can also read some more examples on how to use the VoxOx Universal Translator feature by our intern Ben — “Ben’s Fave Five Ways to Use the VoxOx Universal Translator”

Natasha Grach is a PR pro by day and singer by night -- when not telling the world about VoxOx, she can be found on stage at some of San Diego’s favorite musical theater venues. She is also a travel junkie. Her favorite countries include Turkey, Israel, Spain, UK, Italy, Russia, Lithuania. She’ll be using VoxOx SMS CallBack on her next trip around the globe!

follow natasha.grach twitter.com/natashagrach

follow VoxOx twitter.com/voxox

• Free round trip airfare to San Diego — To be eligible to win you must currently live within the County of San Diego.

• A five-night stay at our CEO’s oceanfront property — OK, so it’s not really oceanfront, but on a clear day you can almost see the water. Winner must cook, clean, and walk dogs during stay.

• Experience a full week at the company headquarters — Winner must have a computer science and engineering degree with 10+ years of programming experience. Must be willing to work 40+ hours during stay.

We can’t wait to hear from you (if you qualify, that is)!

……..

OK, you knew it was coming: APRIL FOOLS!!!!!

Our CEO is too dangerous to stay with anyway…

TelCentris CEO Bryan "The Crane" Hertz

Natasha Grach is a PR pro by day and singer by night -- when not telling the world about VoxOx, she can be found on stage at some of San Diego’s favorite musical theater venues. She is also a travel junkie. Her favorite countries include Turkey, Israel, Spain, UK, Italy, Russia, Lithuania. She’ll be using VoxOx SMS CallBack on her next trip around the globe!

follow natasha.grach twitter.com/natashagrach

follow VoxOx twitter.com/voxox