How do you spell “LOL”?: On Google Voice Transcriptions

A couple months ago I switched my voicemail to using Google Voice. It was much easier than I expected, mostly because my cellular provider is Sprint, who have a partnership with Google Voice that allows you to port over your real mobile number with very little hassle. (For me, keeping the same phone number I’ve had for over a dozen years was a high priority.)

Now I can resolutely say that using GVoice has been a total win for me. One major benefit is that GVoice can ring my office phone during normal working hours, since the cell hardly gets a signal in the lead-lined building I work in. And I love that I almost never have to dial into my voicemail to listen to a message, since GVoice transcribes them all for me and sends me an email just seconds after the call.

Of course, the transcriptions are less than perfect, but still pretty darn good for a machine. Most of the time I can easily understand and “read through” the transcription mistakes so I’m not missing out on any critical information. And you can’t beat the entertainment value in the mistakes in every transcription–it’s always a LOL-moment.

Don’t believe me? Take a look at some of these gems I have collected:

• From my wife: “…we were gonna pick up a Another Europe so and so I was wondering if you could do that for us please.” (It’ll be good to have a spare in case this one goes bankrupt.)
• “I was just calling. Because, I was remembering Part I, neck.” (I don’t remember there being any necking involved…)
• From my mom: “By the way in life. Hours are just gorgeous, sales. They’re opened maybe half way and doing really really great and I really like gummed anxious to hear how painfully strip plan.” (Huh?!?)
• “I didn’t see actually. In the accident but it’s clear that that big loud noise was something catastrophic like euchre, number in stinks.” (I have now adopted the new catch-phrase “something catastrophic like euchre” and prefer to measure things in “stinks”.)

I will continue saving these “best of Google Voice transcriptions” as I fully expect there are more LOL’s to come.