
It’s Time For Google To Let Google Voice Live Up To Its Promise - stanleydrew
http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/29/its-time-for-google-to-let-google-voice-live-up-to-its-promise/
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paul9290
I just got a iPhone 4S on Sprint.

They are the only carrier to offer deep Google Voice integration.

Unfortunately and not surprising there are many issues with Sprint's GV on
iPhone. If you want to use Siri to send text messages you have to use iMessage
and there is now way to get your Google Voice text messages integrated with
iMessage. Many Sprint iPhone GV users have noted the call quality is lacking,
as there is a delay. Also, when you go to a Sprint store (since it's a new
thing) they have no information. One rep advised that I port my Google Voice #
out, in which I did and after doing so realized that was mis-information (lost
my GV #).

I will miss GV, especially the SMS service in the cloud. Though I am curious
to hear other readers experience. Are you using Google Voice on Sprint with
your iPhone? How is it working out for you?

~~~
ComputerGuru
Why was this downvoted? I found it very informative and interesting -
personally, I can't wait for GV to be a native option on the iPhone 4S w/
Verizon, though that'll never happen.

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georgemcbay
I use GrooveIP ($5 on Android Market) to use Google Voice over the data
connection on both my actual Android phone and my ASUS Transformer
tablet/netbook (which has no cellphone chip at all inside of it, just wifi).

Granted, it would be nice if this were more of an integrated part of the OS
and the Voice app, without needing to set up or use a third party SIP provider
and it all Just Worked including seemlessly handling incoming calls, but there
are some options out there now to get this sort of setup working.

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scottallison
Google Voice is a great product which could be so much better, it's pretty
clear it's one of those things Google has not looked after or worked on much.
It's also a complete pain to set up. Your average Joe is going to struggle to
get it up and running and nicely integrated with Gmail. I've watched two
reasonably techie people struggle to work out to make/receive calls inside of
Gmail.

Note that if you struggle with cell reception and want to make calls over wifi
then T-Mobile's UMA service - they call it "Wifi Calling" - is a good solid
solution which just uses wifi as an alternate bearer for all your phone's
usual capability. (voice, text, data)

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maqr
I have my cell phone's voicemail use Google Voice and it's a huge improvement
over T-Mobile's voicemail.

I also give out my Google Voice number and it rings both my cell phone and my
always-open Gmail window at the same time.

If I'm at my computer with headphones on, which is most of the time, then I
can make/receive calls for free inside of my web browser. I know people want
to use GV for more mobile things, but I'm extremely happy with the way I'm
currently using it through Gmail.

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davux
I used to be a huge fan of Google Voice, but I'm not so hot on it anymore. I
started using it because I didn't have good at&t reception at my house. It was
a godsend at first, I could actually get text messages without having my phone
in a very specific place.

But as I continued to use the service...

\- Not having MMS shouldn't be a big deal, and it isn't. Until someone wants
to send you one. "Oh no, send it to my other number, sorry about that. Which
number? Oh, you told me not to text there, so I deleted it." But then people
start sending everything to that number, and you have to tell them which
number to use for what thing. People hate this, and I don't blame them--it
gets confusing.

\- GV is seen as a landline, goodbye all of those cheap m2m minutes, you're
now costing your friends part of their anytime minutes even though you're
actually talking to them on your cell phone. This isn't a huge deal, except
for those people that don't have many anytime minutes--because they mostly
only call cell phones. I'd love to know whether this is a problem when you
port your GV number to Sprint, but I have no idea.

\- GV will sometimes drop SMS forwarding. I miss around 1 message a week (call
it 1 in 1000), it'll show up on google.com/voice, but it never makes it to my
phone.

\- For several years, all the Google forwarding numbers (the numbers that you
will get an SMS from, a unique number per contact that is generated the first
time they send you a message) were in the 406 area code. This made it pretty
easy to always be sure of which number you were sending to. Last year, they
started assigning numbers based on any area code. This means you must be very
rigid in how you add phone numbers to your contacts. It gets confusing when
you have a contact with two SMS-capable numbers, now you have 4 numbers (Home,
Work, Pager, Home Fax?). This is a big problem if you sync with Exchange, less
so if you can assign custom number labels (Home GV, Work GV, etc.).

\- Sometimes messages are delayed. Perhaps once a month I'll start getting
messages delayed by an hour or so. This happens with cell carriers too
(although I rarely see it on that side), so not as big of a deal as dropped
messages.

\- I won't even get into the lack of an API and the frustration that causes
for those that choose to write apps that utilize or extend GV.

After years using GV, I now have a MicroCell at home, and I've switched
everyone back to my at&t number. It's just less confusing. I've wanted to love
GV so badly, but it just isn't the silver bullet that it is advertised as.

Maybe Google will fix Google Voice, but I'm not as optimistic as I used to be.
:(

~~~
Athtar
Did you switch your GV number to AT&T? Or did you use a new number?

I have been considering switching my GV number back to a cell carrier for a
while, but I have heard/read that there might be issue doing that. Primarily
with SMS/texting receipts, incoming calls from other GV numbers, etc.

~~~
davux
I didn't port (and wouldn't for the MMS/landline issues alone, I think) - I
did it all 'on top' of an at&t and an ipkall.com/SIP/asterisk number.

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furyg3
I'm an American expat and I really want Google Voice to work for me, but sadly
it just doesn't.

\- International Call Forwarding - I can't grasp why they don't do this. I
work around it by having my GV number forward to a US Twilio number, which
forwards to my foreign cell. Complexity = problems, and I'm giving Twilio a
bunch of cash I could be giving Google.

\- VoIP Calls - I wouldn't even have the above problem if GV supported VoIP.
Even if it's only limited to WiFi, it would still be a major plus. The tech
exists (Skype app), and Google has implemented it for GMail and even SIP at
one point.

\- Buggy iPhone app - This is what really shows me GV is a low priority for
Google. The app is buggy as hell, crashes, doesn't pick up where you left off
when you re-open it, doesn't always display most current inbox information,
etc... For such a simple app, it shouldn't be this horrible.

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tomxtobin
Google Voice has a bunch of nice features, and integrates very well with
Android phones, but I gave up on it after dealing with too many cases of
dropped audio during calls. (I have a very low tolerance for any service, free
or paid, that screws up communication with my clients.)

I ended up porting my Google Voice number to a commercial service, Toktumi:

<http://www.toktumi.com/>

There are some things Google Voice does better than Toktumi (particularly
contact management and Android support), but Toktumi doesn't drop my calls,
supports VOIP, and lets me completely block callers that withhold their Caller
ID information. I've been switching over to iOS devices, and I've found the
Toktumi "Line2" apps to be better than Google Voice on that platform.

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aedocw
You can do exactly what he's asking for a one-time cost of $45 with OBiTALK. I
used it on my iPhone while traveling in Europe to make several flawless calls
to the US, each lasting an hour or more.

~~~
mieses
If you are logged into Gmail with voice then Obitalk will not ring when you
get a call.

Google Voice will only ring one Google Chat endpoint. You have to sign out of
all other Gmail and Google Chat sessions for it to work. It's a nice solution,
but the Obitalk site should mention this limitation.

~~~
illumin8
If you use an Obihai device, I highly recommend that you setup a new Google
voice account for it, separate from your main Gmail account, for just this
reason. You still get an extra phone line that you can make and receive calls
on, and you don't need to worry about your Gmail session intercepting your
phone calls.

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jsz0
The latency of text messages is what killed Google Voice for me. You just
can't rely on it and it's really confusing to ask people to text you on one
number and call you on another.

