My main goal was to replace my voicemail. I never check it (currently have 10 messages). Most of them are hang-up messages from my mom or family member, so I mostly ignore them. I almost never get useful voicemail. So. Google voice to the rescue.
First apparent problem (not so bad). The speach to text is horrible. Maybe 40% of the voicemail was correctly transcribed. maybe less. But never really useful. Ever. I only got the gist of if I should or should not listen to the voicemail, which really is good enough for me because it solved my voicemail problem.
Second hidden problem (maaaaaaaajor, the reason I quit): Calls are not instantly forwarded. This might sound like I am picky, but check this out: If for 3 out of 4 rings the call is being forwarded, I only realize someone is calling when they hang up. (this feature was necessary so that people calling my regular cell would immediately get my google voice voicemail vs my regular voicemail). Actually often the forwarding would be so slow that the person already got to voicemail by the time my cellphone rang. People mostly thought my cell was off.
So overall until their speeds SIGNIFICANTLY increase I can't use gv. And I am not even doing this as a business. So their little graph of how google voice revolutionizes telephony is kinda bs. Wait 5 years and the pudding will tell.
What is nice is if I DONT use my gv number, then I can switch away from it without problem. If people start only calling my gv phone number I will be trapped in the crappiness of google voice. I am glad they let me use my regular phone number vs gv phone number.