Voice During School Closure Job Aid

What is Google Voice? “With Google Voice, you get a phone number for calls, text , and voicemail. Use this number to dial domestically and internationally from your web browser and mobile devices. Your organization gives you a Voice number or can let you choose your own number if you're in the U.S. or Canada.

What you can do with Voice: Easily call people in your contacts and organization Text using your new number from any device Save time by reading your voicemail in your email inbox Get protected from spam calls, block unwanted callers, and screen calls before answering

To offer these services, Voice saves and processes your call, text, and voicemail information.”

Step 1: Create a school .

● Go to https://accounts.google.com/ to create a Google account for your school:

● Take note of the School Google account username and password as you will be sharing it with your SAA and/or other school support.

Step 2: Go to voice.google.com

Step 3: Select “For personal use” then select “Web”

Step 4: Sign in using your School Google account

Step 5: Choose a number based on an area code you chose (i.e. 323, 213, 310)

Step 6: Input the phone number you’d like to sync with Google Voice ● If you are physically at your school office, you can use your school office phone number. If you are not at school, you can use your cell number and add the school phone number once you are at school. Choose the phone number you would like to use to “verify” and sync your Google Voice number. If you want to use your school landline click “verify by phone” and Google will call that number and verbally give you the code. If you use your cell number, Google will text you a code to verify.

● Later you can add the school’s office number and delete your cell number from the account. ● You can also add multiple phone numbers to your Google Voice account (i.e. your AP, SAA, etc).

Step 7: Go to “settings” by clicking on the gear icon on the top right ● Here you will see: ○ Your Google Voice number ○ Personalize a Voicemail greeting message ○ Add more phone numbers to the account ○ Turn on the “Do Not Disturb” option on if you want calls to go straight to voicemail.

Step 8: Click the “X” on the top left to exit settings ● Your call log and voicemails will appear on the main Voice page.

Below is an example of how a principal is using Google Voice at their school:

SAA can develop an office hour schedule to check phone calls and voicemails from Google Voice. Our Google Phone is (xxx) xxx-xxxx. The way to access this is by logging on to our school Google Account at www.google.com:

Username: [email protected] PW: ______Go to: voice.google.com to access Google Voice account

This search will take you to our Google Voice page where you will see calls that have come in. Once a call is made, a message is left by the caller and then the office tech can respond to that message during their designated office time assignment (SAA will develop the schedule for each office member). I have set up a recording that people will hear when they call.