One of
the best things about Android is its tight integration with the Google Apps suite. The Gmail client, for example, is leaps and
bounds ahead of its iOS counterpart, giving you the ability to
tag, filter, switch accounts, and do just about everything you can do on the
desktop version. Maybe the most versatile member of the Google Apps squad,
though, is Google Voice.
Voice
gives you a new phone number (or you can carry over your existing mobile
number) that is tied to your Google account. You can do all sorts of nifty
things with this number, like setting different voicemail greetings for
different callers, forwarding the number to a separate line (or two), and
having voicemails automatically transcribed to text so you can read them like
regular messages. If you're moving to a new city, you might also consider
signing up for a Google Voice number with a local area code – that way you can
hang on to your original number, but also get the benefits of local calling
rates.
With the proper setup, you can
also use Google Voice to get free texts – even if your phone plan doesn't
include texting. Your Google Voice number can both send and receive texts for
free, and your Android phone will give you the option to use that Voice number
as the default. Alternatively, you can tell it to forward texts as emails
(you'll be able to respond to incoming texts by email, as well). As long as you
keep the data portion of your phone plan, you can pretty safely drop the
messaging part.
