Google Voice offers many great features, such as transcription, call filtering and free U.S. calls.  Voice is not perfect, though.  In fact, there are a few aspects of the service that are downright disappointing.  Fortunately, Google does have time to work out the kinks, as Voice only has limited availability at the present time.  In the meantime, here are five improvements that Google Voice needs to make before going mainstream. 

1.  Tagging and filtering for voicemail messages

Currently, when you’re done reviewing a voice message in your Google Voice inbox (whether from listening to it, or reading the transcript), you have three options available to you.  You can leave it in your inbox, you can delete it, or you can archive it.  All archived messages go into one long list in your "History" box.  Your History contains a list of your incoming and outgoing calls, regardless of whether they contain a voicemail message.  This list can’t be organized, which makes Voice cumbersome when the time comes to find a message.  Google needs to take a page from one of its other products, Gmail, and offering tagging and filtering options for voicemail messages.

2.  Adjustable number of rings before calls go to voicemail

If you’ve activated it, Google Voice’s voicemail picks up a call if it isn’t answered within 25 seconds.  This can’t be adjusted.  As a result, you need to make sure that the voicemail of any phone on your account doesn’t answer prior to that time.  This is a problem for me, where the voicemail for my direct dial line at work picks up in less than 25 seconds, and can’t be adjusted.  My workaround is to activate Call Presentation in Voice, which requires you to accept the call by pressing a button.  If the call isn’t accepted in this matter, it will go to Google Voice voicemail, instead of being answered by my work system.  Since all of my phones have caller ID, I’d rather not have to use Call Presentation.  If I could even extend the default Google Voice ringtime by a second or two, this would do the trick.

3.  Make Call Presentation adjustable on a phone by phone basis

If we can’t adjust the number of rings before a call goes to voicemail, at least let us choose which phones use Call Presentation.  When I’m sitting at my desk, I don’t mine pressing "1" to accept incoming calls.  In my car, though, where I can answer the phone with a button on my steering wheel, I don’t want to have to also unlock my iPhone, open the keypad, and accept the call.

4.  Seamless playback process for emailed messages

If you’re emailed a Google Voice voicemail message, and click on the "Play message" link, the message doesn’t play from within your email inbox.  Instead, you’re taken to the Google Voice page to play the message.  On the iPhone, you have to wait while the message loads in the audio player.  This process would be easier, especially on smartphones, if we were given the option to have the message emailed as an attachment.

5.  Settings based on user location

Because of the problems mentioned above with my work voicemail grabbing calls before Google Voice voicemail picks up, I have one group of settings I use in the office, and another group of settings I use elsewhere.  When I’m in the office, I turn on Call Presentation, and select my office phone in the Phone list settings.  When I leave the office, I turn off Call Presentation, and deselect my office phone (my time in the office changes too much to completely rely on Voice’s time filter settings).  I’d like to be able to click one box to tell Voice where I am, such as "In the office" or "At home," and have a variety of preselected settings automatically kick in to handle calls in a particular way.

Google Voice is still in its infancy, so we may see some of these changes in the future.  What changes would you like to see?