I have been using YouMail as my primary voice mail transcription service, but decided to finally implement my Google Voice account. You mail was charging me $6/month for voicemail transcription. With Google, it is free.   I figure I will test it out a bit and see how it compares to YouMail.

I personally use AT&T, and here’s what I had to do:

In Google Voice Settings, Turn on “Do Not Disturb”.
Dial:   *004*1xxxxxxx*11#      (where xxxxxxx is your google number)
Voila, that’s it!

If you do not turn on the Do Not Disturb setting, the phone will ring AGAIN after being transferred from your phone carrier to google voice.

To turn off the forwarding type:    ##0004#

Here are some other carrier activation codes:

 
Wireless Carrier or Network —> Activation Code
AT&T Cingular, T-Mobile, GSM network: *004*1[GVnumber]*11#
Verizon (CDMA network): *71[GVnumber] AND *90[GVnumber] AND *92[GVnumber]
Verizon (TDMA Network): *74[GVnumber] and *73[GVnumber]
Bluegrass Cellular: *90#[GVnumber] and *92#[GVnumber]
Cellcom: *68[GVnumber]
Cincinnati Bell: *004*[GVnumber]#US Cellular: *74[GVnumber]