I have found that emailing my blog posts to a group of relatives and friends (now n = 68) seems to get a little more of them read than merely posting on the blog page. That is an example of changing communication modes. You could also say "communication types" or methods or channels. I think 'channel' is getting to mean more and more things so I will use "modes" for now.
One reason to use Google Voice is that you can send a text message to any US phone if you know the number and the phone is capable of receiving text. If you send a text to a phone that is not capable of receiving text, you will get a message in Google Voice that the message was not delivered successfully. Why text? Because you are changing communication modes. For some people, text is immediate and ok while email is slow, passé, or difficult to handle on a tiny keyboard. But for others, it is cheap or free, immediate since they have the phone in their pocket or bag and very fast.
Until you experience the difference between your friend's rare and tardy responses to your emails and the immediate response in less than 1 minute with a text, it is hard to believe there is much difference. Some people do get their email on their smartphone so for them there may not be much difference. However, the person with an old computer that is at home and turned off finds the immediate text message that arrives with an alerting signal entirely different.
Google Voice has a slate of settings with options to receive texts in your own email, on your phones that you choose. You can reply to a text in that person's email to avoid the character limit of text or send back in text. Voice lets you know continuously how many characters you are still allowed while making a text message. It is easy to forward a text message to someone's email if you set Voice to send texts into your email.
Letting your phone tell you a text has arrived but looking at it in Google Voice costs nothing on the phone bill. You can delete multiple texts on your phone without opening them, avoiding all phone cost.
If you contact me by email, text or phone and I don't respond, I may have lost the message, never opened it or forgotten about it. Trying a given mode three separate times would enable 9 contacts overall. If I don't respond by then, forget about me!
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
