Google Voice invites for students | Hacker News Reader

Google Voice invites for students

google.com

26 pointsabraham32 comments

This seems primarily like a marketing ploy. I signed up with my gmail account a few months ago and got my invite very soon (within 48 hours if not 24). Unless things have gotten worse, it seems more like an excuse to try to get students to sign up than Google giving students that much benefit.

Edit: Apparently the situation has gotten significantly worse since I signed up, which is not that long ago.

it comes in handy when studying abroad (free international calls if you use with gizmo)

I'm not saying that Google Voice isn't useful to students. I'm saying that students could have pretty much gotten an invite within a day even before this program just because the invite lag is pretty short. But it's easier to get people to blog, post to hacker news, etc. about a "special" program, so they more-or-less invented one.

Things have gotten worse, though, it seems; when I signed up it took about a month before I got the invitation, and I know others who've been waiting ~two months now and still haven't gotten it.

Coworker signed up 6 weeks ago and still hasn't gotten his invite. So things have changed.

I think half of the reason Google uses invite-only beta services so much is to make people want the service more. People desire things more when they are scarce: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarcity_value

I'm sure that adds something, but half seems a little high. The invitation tree must be highly valuable information when it comes to fighting spammers.

You realize each new account takes up a US-based telephone number, right? There's no number porting yet.

This time around, Google can't just open up 10 million new accounts. I mean, they could, but it would cause chaos.

*american students

As a student, google voice saved my ass on more than one occasion.

I landed in the hospital for 4 days, with no cell phone reception. If I hadn't been able to send texts over wifi with voice, I don't know what I would have done.

I had my dorm phone working with it too, it really was a lifesaver when I didn't have a cellular.

I'm not sure I understand... You were in a hospital with no phones?

That's when you go: "Nurse, I need to make a phone call, please."

When the heck is Google voice going to support number portability?

When the heck are telcos going to support number portability to services like Google Voice?

They do. Google isn't currently accepting port-ins.

They do. It's up to Google to start supporting it.

There's a lot of features that (I suspect) are prohibiting GV from getting a larger footing. This may be one of them, since GV is preaching liberation from being tied to your service provider... but then tying you to them as a service provider. I have a GV number and love the service, but this reason prevents me from giving it out and using the service more.

An even bigger "get with the program" feature is the ability to forward calls internationally. I'm a US-expat, and I'd kill for this feature (read: pay). I personally know many others who spend a lot of time traveling abroad, and pay for other half-baked solutions to this problem. And unlike portability, turning this on costs GV nothing.

The ability to transcribe your pre-recorded calls (which can be done with voicemail already) seems like it would be pretty easy to turn on as well. This would be a magnet feature for anyone who interviews for a living, and would be peanuts to implement.

I'm sure they're focusing on their core service, but it's been a year and I haven't really seen a lot of innovation going on over there.

They are only sending out invites to american residents then?

I signed up a couple of months ago from outside the US and still didn't receive an invite. Time to try using a proxy!

I have a couple of invites left, if anybody is interested.

edit: 1 left.

Wouldn't mind one -- email is on my profile.

Would love one. Email's also in my profile.

I just sent it, so I have no more invites left. (it seems I cannot edit my previous comment anymore)

Thanks a lot!

I just had a grad student begging me for my last GV invite last week. Now I can hang on to it for a more strategic situation :)

My university hands out unlimited .edu addresses to students that can be configured to forward to any email address...

I wasn't aware they were this hard to get. I've got 3 left for anyone that wants.

I could use one, been waiting for a few months now. I guess I'm in the magic "nah, not you" bucket right now. If you haven't burned your last 3, I'd love one to ismarc31.

I sent one to your gmail account (I assumed is your gmail account). I hope I got it right and didn't fire an invitation into the ether.

Indeed it was the correct one. I've got it set up and everything now, thank you VERY much.

You can also buy invites on ebay. Last summer they were going 10 for 2.50.

"for students who have a .edu email address", no?

My university doesn't hand those out. :(

I've currently got 3 invites, if anyone is interested.

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