As posted on the official Google Voice Blog, in an effort to further improve Google Voice's voicemail transcription capabilities, Google is asking for users' help. Previously, a user could check a box, letting Google know how useful the transcribed message was. Now, when you check one of those boxes, Google will ask if you'd like to donate the voicemail to them in order to help improve the service. This would give Google the rights to listen to, manually transcribe, and use your message to see how accurate their system is performing.
Sometimes, the automated process works very well, but many times it fails to prove even the slightest bit useful. Google says that many variables can influence the quality of transcripts. Background noise, accents, and connection quality are a few of the influencing factors affecting transcription accuracy.
Google Voice (formerly GrandCentral), is a free way to manage all of your phones under a single number. It was launched on March 11, 2009 and currently services over 1.4 million users (as of October 30th). To get an account, you must be sent an invite. Users who already have the service can invite three people aboard, similar to the way Gmail worked in its infancy. To sign up for an invite from Google directly, visit the Google Voice website.
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