
Will Google Hang Up on Voice? - mediagearbox
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/04/google-voice-future-uncertain/?cid=co7227094
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chrisrhoden
Short answer: no.

Why Wired would publish an article with this title is pretty obvious, but for
those of you who don't read through, there's absolutely nothing to see here.
Resources continue to be invested in the project.

Everything Google has said on the matter indicates that they know that they
would piss off too many people if the functionality was reduced or went away -
and that the grievance would be real, from their perspective. It's far more
likely at this point, based on everything we've seen (and that this article
links to) that it will be integrated more heavily with + and hangouts and
talk. Your phone number isn't going away.

~~~
sylvainww
Wish I had started by reading your comment, and save me some time.

It would be a real bummer to see the phone number I'm now putting on business
cards disappear...And I'd like Google Voice to let me place calls from my
phone, too (when not in the US, you can only call from the computer). And
transfer any call to Google Voice directly to my cellphone..I don't want new
features, I want better quality and the same features than US users.

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ben1040
They at least care enough about it to integrate it with Glass.

<https://support.google.com/glass/answer/3086044?hl=en>

 _If you're using Google Voice, the SMS will be sent from your Google Voice
number. Otherwise, outbound SMS messages will be sent from the native SMS app
on your phone._

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guylhem
Is there any similar service where an existing GV number could be ported?

I was with sipphone client before it turned into gizmo5 and was swallowed. I
remember the pains of reconfiguration (hardware ata + sip enabled dect phone +
handheld + desktop + laptop ...), and pushing the new phone number to
contacts, including the fact that to this day my sip-enabled dect phone at
home still can't make outgoing call using GV.

I don't want the same scenario to repeat itself - I'll pay for the privilege
of not having to wonder whether the service might close or not.

~~~
agwa
If you're just looking for a decent SIP service which lets you place/receive
calls on the PSTN, take a look at these companies:

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

<https://www.anveo.com/>

<https://www.voip.ms/>

All three are well-established companies, though Callcentric is probably the
best. I've personally ported a GV number to them. The service isn't free and
you don't get voicemail transcription or a fancy web interface, but it's
reliable and very good at making/receiving phone calls.

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cpursley
On this topic, what's a good Google voice alternative? Something for business
that will ring my cell phone. Preferably a 1-800 # with answering ability and
phone tree capability.

~~~
jaytaylor
Full disclosure: I work at SendHub

SendHub (<https://sendhub.com>) will give you a virtual business line
(SMS+Voice) for free that you can access from the web or from your
iPhone/iPad/Android device.

I know we support 1-800 numbers on paid plans, just hop on support chat and
they will take care of you.

~~~
fn
Does it work with Canadian area codes?

~~~
jaytaylor
Try it out - some parts of Canada are supported.

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meritt
No.

Google Voice is a paid service (additional numbers, porting numbers, etc).
They won't shut it down. They might deprecate the free-to-use features and
make it paid only, perhaps. But it will not go away.

~~~
rgbrenner
How much money do they make off of voice? I was a (paying) postini customer
and they shut that down... So paying them is no guarantee

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Samuel_Michon
Google gets 95% of its revenue from advertising, so nothing else is essential.

~~~
meritt
That's funny, Google shut down Google Affiliate Network yesterday which drives
a decent amount of advertising revenue.

[http://googleaffiliatenetwork-
blog.blogspot.com/2013/04/an-u...](http://googleaffiliatenetwork-
blog.blogspot.com/2013/04/an-update-on-google-affiliate-network.html)

~~~
Samuel_Michon
Decoding the marketing speak, I'd say Google makes more money off its other
programs, so Google is axing Affiliate Network in favor of those. Publishers
are expected to move to AdSense CPC/CPI, and given how little competition
there is, few customers will leave.

 _“we’ve made the difficult decision to retire Google Affiliate Network and
focus on other products that are driving great results for clients.”_

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killwhitey
I've been using Google Voice for SMS for years now, and the threading issue is
still a constant bother. For those who've never used it, Voice splits messages
into different threads, but is completely opaque about how it does this,
resulting in conversations with a person split up seemingly randomly.

I got a long text a few days ago from someone that had to be split into three.
The first and third part was attached to the previous conversation, and the
second part started a new one. No idea why it does this, but the fact that
I've been searching online for an answer since 2010 and still don't have one
is worrisome.

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kylesethgray
I really hope they don't. I use it daily and it's probably the service I rely
on the most, besides GMail.

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cdoxsey
For anyone looking for an alternative to Google Voice checkout SendHub
(<https://www.sendhub.com/>).

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ConstantineXVI
A note: if you're on VZW, their (sadly hideous) Messenger app replicates
Voice's cross-device SMS(/MMS!) on your VZ number.

~~~
Andrex
Why Google Voice still does not support MMS is dumbfounding to me.

~~~
mgkimsal
Why something with 'voice' in the name supports any sort of text messaging at
all is dumbfounding to me.

~~~
aleyan
Why something called 'phone' has a map, a tv, a calendar, an internet browser,
and a bunch of games built in at all is dumbfounding to me.

Yet that is the world we live in. Phones are expected to have all these
features and phone numbers are expected to be able to accept text messages.

Just two weeks ago I wasted an hour waiting for my friends because GV silently
dropped MMS multi-person chat messages sent to me. Not ok.

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flootch
The difference between voice and reader is that while I might pay up to $5 per
month for reader, I would be tempted by free alternatives.

Voice is world class and there are no competitors that come close for less
than $10 per month.

(please don't tell Google this.)

~~~
jeff303
I agree for the most part, but lately I have started noticing more glitches
with it. In particular, new "generated" numbers are being created for existing
contacts in response to SMS, and calls are being dropped from the server when
attempting to answer on my cell (seems to work fine if I just disable call
screening entirely, which is what I may end up doing).

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yanw
Trollish post. Empty speculation and blatant pageview whoring.

No new features in the latest update but the .apk teardown suggests future
functionality: [http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/04/15/apk-teardown-
google-...](http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/04/15/apk-teardown-google-
voice-0-4-2-80-something-wants-to-read-google-voices-settings/)

