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google actvity vs phone usage

S

SHANNON ECKERT

Lurker
Deleted texts & calls on the actual phone do show up on the carrier usage. However, on google there are additional calls & texts that show up which are totally out of sync with the carriers usage details. I have seen this with originally an HTC & now a Samsung Galaxy. What are possible reason that this would happen? And no offense to anyone, but please give educated answers or answers with information that you know for sure. I really don't mean to offend anyone.
 
If OP is talking about Google's Dashboard for their account, Google never really deletes some things.

I can't delete the blog I once had, or the number written, but I did delete the writings.

Same with books and music. Whatever Google gave free on signing up, is still there and you can't delete it even if you never accessed it.

Google has made mistakes in billing on my account. I got a flock of small charges issued by Google Pay which I don't use and is disabled on my phone. The credit card company deemed them fraud and charged back. That was fine until I did purchase a couple of apps and the credit card marked those as fraud. Took 2 calls and explaining to tell fraud those charges were legit. Now I just watch CC.
 
I can't see anything in my Google Dashboard that would know about my calls and messages though, which is what the question is about.
 
Whereas the "Activity" in my Google dashboard doesn't include phone calls or text messages at all. That is what I'm trying to understand.

You aren't using Google's Project Fi or something like that? I'm on the wrong side of the Atlantic to have experience of that, but I could imagine Google having extra information on your activity if you were.
 
SHANNON ECKERT said:
on my google activity, there are phone and text messages that are not on my phone bill
Click to expand...
Specifics, rather than vague references, would certainly make it easier to provide relevant suggestions.
If you're referring to this:
https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity
this is Google's documentation of your online Google usage, all things directly referencing things and activities you've done while logged into your Google account. Some of this might be done while you're using your phone(s), some elsewhere (i.e. logged into your Google account on a PC). so there's going to be some entries correlating with your carrier's usage records and some that isn't.
If you don't want this, go into the activity settings, delete all, and set your preferences to 'pause'.
 
I don't have anything in Google Activity. I don't use it.

About the dashboard, I was trying to point out that some things you no longer use or want still keep info.

Email should show up there if it's addressed to your account and the sender would be in contacts.
 
Yes I am referring to https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity. I would think that my phone bill should match the activity when it states Used com.samsung.android.incallui or and/or the Used com.samsung.android.messaging ...
The phone calls are pretty consistant with my phone bill - except maybe a few here and there, but there are a lot more text messages on the "activity" than there are on my phone bill, Just an FYI...this is on my daughter's phone, not mine. She has been grounded from her phone unless i've been told what shes using it for...so i should be able to look at the phone bill to see if shes used it without my permission, but when I look at her "google activity", it is showing that she is using it more than what I can see on the phone bill, I need to know what's accurate, along with possible reasons why it wouldn't be correct- before I confront her
 
That's recording when an app is used, but does that necessarily mean that calls were made or message were sent? If she was just reading old messages, for example, or checking when someone last called her, that would also be using those apps, but it wouldn't be making any calls or sending any messages. That sort of thing could explain the differences.

The carrier's bill will record any actual calls made or messages sent, and if you are living in a country where received calls or messages are charged for (i.e. the USA - few if any others do that) then I assume those would also appear. There's no way of hiding calls or messages made using cellular telephony from the carrier (i.e. the things you are asking about), so I would be inclined to trust the carrier's billing on that.
 
Thank you! I appreciate the information. Helps alot. Now I have one more question. What is she's using or someone contacting her is using a 3rd party texting / calling app? Would that still show up on her google activityUsed com.samsung.android.incallui or and/or the Used com.samsung.android.messaging?
 
I think that calls will show up as the "in call UI" regardless. SMS messaging will show up as whatever app is used for that (so e.g. mine shows up as Chomp SMS, since that's what I use rather than the built-in app). But it's unlikely that anyone would swap between 2 SMS apps all of the time, so if she was using a different app it's unlikely the Samsung message app would appear much in the activity list. Both calls and SMS show up in the bill regardless of what app is used.

But that's for cellular calls and SMS messages. If you use an internet-based message app like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger then those are just using the internet connection, and won't show up as calls or messages on the bill (the app usage will show up in the activity record though).
 
So if someone uses facebook messaging or another internet based app to send her a message, would it come in on her android messaging app... and show as such on her google activity?
 
No, it would come in on the Facebook Messenger app (or whatever). It would only appear on the phone bill as a part of the data usage (which isn't broken down by app). It's more like email than SMS in that respect.
 
Hadron, you have been very helpful in getting some clarification on this matter. If anyone else wants to chime in also, please do so. I want to make sure all my bases are covered so I handle this correctly with my daughter.
 
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