Google just announced a new service called Fiber Phone — here's how it works

Fiber Phone is Google’s newest release to add to its broadband and television service. Fiber phone is Google’s new home-phone service. It is similar to Google’s app that does very limited phone services: Google Voice. Through Fiber Phone, voicemails will be transferred into text messages and sent to the user’s cell phone. There will also be spam filtering of calls, similar to that of our email. Consumers will also have the option, as already will Google Voice) to set different phones to ring in different places, such as a work phone when in the office and the home phone at night, and a cell phone wherever else. It will also be cheap ($10 add-on a month) to those who already have Google Fiber’s Internet service. It is currently available in four cities, planning to expand to seven others soon.

I believe the article did a good job as presenting the benefits. I think the idea behind it is great as well, especially voicemails being transcribed into text messages. I think overall leaving voicemails is unnecessary in today’s world, this transcription technology it would be more efficient to be able to skim a text message then listen to a droned out voice message. Filtering out spam calls would also be a huge benefit helping to end being interrupted by some nonsense scam or collection calls. It seems as if Google has really engineered a way to allow people to successfully set different phones to go off, when their consumer is in different places. By using GPS technology, Google is able to determine where is work and where is home and based on the person’s location, which one should ring. Meanwhile, the price of the service is also a major benefit.

This article however, did raise some concerns. I believe overall, Google with their new technology, will not be successful because it is not a major phone carrier. Wouldn’t this just allow for Verizon, Comcast, etc., to be able to play catch up and then be able to run with the ideas and technology when they are able to? Also, I am concerned with how accurate the voice to text transcription is. On our phones we always have to repeat, annunciate and change our wording for technology like Siri to understand us. How would this technology be able to understand accents, low, quiet voices, and younger kids? Further, how would the location technology work, if a consumer is in an office building but is on a different floor or in a meeting, or on break? How efficient is it to have a system set up to work or home compared to just having all calls go to one’s cell phone? I believe that this feature idea is good, but useless in today’s world where cell phones are becoming primary phones. Also, when it comes to spam calls, how does Google determine what is spam or not?, since some important messages may be left and not heard. The article did do a good job at explaining what Google will be able to offer as a phone carrier with new technology, which can be beneficial in today’s fast-paced society, but in part, I believe, is irrelevant. It will be a while until Google as a phone carrier becomes widely known, and to see if the company will last as a phone carrier. This article was able to express new technology through a phone app to add convenience in people’s lives when it comes to phone calls, but left me with many unanswered questions. 

 http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-google-fiber-phone-2016-3