Google recently sent out an e-mail informing those who have integrated their Google Voice number with their Sprint phone number that there has been a change to their account. In the Sprint and Google partnership, privacy and security have been given close attention, and that's a trend that's continuing with the change -- the automatic enabling of your voicemail PIN. This change was enacted to deny unwanted people listening to your personal voicemail and provide another layer of protection.
Users who wish to disable this feature will not have the option to do it by merely calling their voicemail and going through the menus, however. The email details instructions on how to do it:
- Log in to your account at http://www.google.com/voice and click on your 'Voice Settings', and go to the 'Phones' tab.
- Click 'Edit' under the forwarding phone with the PIN that you wish to deactivate.
- Click 'Advanced Settings' and under 'Voicemail Access', select PIN not required.
Now that's quite a few steps required to simply disable the use of a PIN to access your voicemail. It's clear that privacy is important to both of these companies. It's also good to see that Google and Sprint aren't sitting on their laurels and are actively maintaining this integration. Stay tuned for further enhancements that are sure to come! Full email text after the break.
Update Regarding your Google Voice on Sprint Account
Hello Google Voice user, We are writing to inform you of a change that we have made to your Sprint on Google Voice account. In order to provide the highest level of privacy protection for your voicemail, we have automatically enabled the PIN number you provided for voicemail access when you set up your Sprint on Google Voice account at http://www.google.com/voice. This means that when you access your Google Voicemail from your Sprint handset, you will now be prompted to enter the PIN you selected upon sign up. If you have forgotten your PIN, please log in to your Google Voice account at http://www.google.com/voice, and navigate to your 'Voice Settings'. Select the 'Voicemail & Text' tab, and you will see 'Voicemail PIN'. This is the number you will need to enter to access your voicemail. However, should you choose, you can always disable requiring a PIN when calling your voicemail from one of your forwarding phones. To disable requiring a PIN when accessing voicemail from your mobile phone:
Log in to your account at http://www.google.com/voice and click on your 'Voice Settings', and go to the 'Phones' tab.
Click 'Edit' under the forwarding phone with the PIN that you wish to deactivate.
Click 'Advanced Settings' and under 'Voicemail Access', select PIN not required.
Thank you for using Google Voice on Sprint. If you have any additional questions, please contact Sprint Customer Care or visit the Google Voice Help Center at http://www.google.com/support/voice.
Sincerely,The Google Voice Team
