I am a heavy user of Google Voice and recently discovered a handy little Mac utility that has made my life a whole lot easier:  GrowlVoice.

GrowlVoice is a menubar application that links to your Google Voice account and notifies when you receive a new text message, a voice mail (you can listen to voicemails as well as read their transcripts) and missed calls.  But moreover, it allows you to respond directly and quickly from your computer.  I personally find it easier to type out text messages on a full sized keyboard rather than on my iPhone’s tiny keyboard so if you spend a lot of time at your computer, you might find this utility especially handy.

When a message comes in, you simply click on the notification and type in your reply.  The message is sent in seconds.  The application also organizes all text messages as threaded conversations, making it easy to find and reply to messages quickly.

The notification feature is excellent as well – you are notified immediately when a text message, missed call or voice mail is received.  GrowlVoice can notify you either through Growl or through basic notifications.

GrowlVoice has a quite extensive Preferences pane with many different options that you can set:  notification behavior, notification options, messaging/conversation options, which Google Voice phone to use, which sounds to use, which contacts (Mac Address Book or Google Contacts) to use, as well as several shortcuts you can establish.  I was actually quite surprised at how much you can customize GrowlVoice.

Now while you can initiate calls from GrowlVoice, you cannot actually make phone calls from your computer – the call is made from a phone that you have specified in Google Voice.  For example, to make a call, click the phone button from the GrowlVoice window, type in the number you want to call and then click the call button.  Your designated phone will ring and as soon as you answer, the phone will then complete the call.

So if you are a Google Voice user and spend a lot of time at your computer, you may wish to check out GrowlVoice.  This has turned into one of my “most used” apps.

You can purchase GrowlVoice for $4.99 at the App Store

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