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Help iPhone 4 to Galaxy Nexus confused on Voicemail

T

tbrindisi

Member
I'm going to be making the jump from iOS to android when this phone finally drops, but I'm extremely confused with visual voicemail vs google voice and how it all works.

I've always had free visual voicemail on my iphones on AT&T (been an iphone user since day one in 2007). When I started pricing Verizon plans, I was pretty irrate when I found out they actually charge for that feature. Only 2.99, but still that adds up when it is per phone on a family plan.

Like all things on iPhone, VVM just worked. I'm trying to understand how I can get this same feature on the Galaxy Nexus, but am confused. Does it basically work the same, but you just have to pay for it? Also, I have heard people rave about google voice's voicemail features, but am unsure how this would work.

From what I gathered, I would forward my galaxy nexus incoming calls that arent answered to a google voicemail number I set up, and then make a rule in google voice to send every call from the galaxy nexus phone number straight to voicemail right?? Does this mean I would have to make sure an app like google voice app is always running in the background eating up resources if I want to make sure I am notified everytime a new voicemail comes in?

Can someone clear this up for me?? Thanks!
 
tbrindisi said:
I'm going to be making the jump from iOS to android when this phone finally drops, but I'm extremely confused with visual voicemail vs google voice and how it all works.

I've always had free visual voicemail on my iphones on AT&T (been an iphone user since day one in 2007). When I started pricing Verizon plans, I was pretty irrate when I found out they actually charge for that feature. Only 2.99, but still that adds up when it is per phone on a family plan.

Like all things on iPhone, VVM just worked. I'm trying to understand how I can get this same feature on the Galaxy Nexus, but am confused. Does it basically work the same, but you just have to pay for it? Also, I have heard people rave about google voice's voicemail features, but am unsure how this would work.

From what I gathered, I would forward my galaxy nexus incoming calls that arent answered to a google voicemail number I set up, and then make a rule in google voice to send every call from the galaxy nexus phone number straight to voicemail right?? Does this mean I would have to make sure an app like google voice app is always running in the background eating up resources if I want to make sure I am notified everytime a new voicemail comes in?

Can someone clear this up for me?? Thanks!
Click to expand...

If people called you on your normal cell phone number, Google Voice won't get involved. Google Voice voicemail kicks in when people call your Google Voice number.
 
Actually you can setup google voicemail as your default voicemail with your regular number. In google voice they had a help article on how to set it up.

It was really easy to setup with AT&T, all I had to do was dial a code google voice gave me.

I set it up, people still call my own number, but voicemail goes through google voice. It's better than voicemail on the iPhone. It's still visual, but now I even get what people said in transcript.

It's just as fast as native voicemail on the iPhone, if not faster. I recently swapped to the google voice system for voicemail because I am getting an android soon, I wanted to start moving things over now to make the real swap go smoother.

I can't find the help link in google voice now, but I am on my phone right now.

I will look for the link when I get home.
 
There are free apps out there that just use call forwarding. I use Phone Fusion's VM. Its very handy and its not always running eating up resources. It even shows how much data its used and since having it, I've used up about 22kB (keep in mind that is for the ENTIRE time having it and not the past month).
 
My phone has been configured so that all calls are routed to my google voice voicemail forever it seems. Most times, I don't even bother listening to the voicemails. While gvoice can throw out some ridiculous translations, usually I can get the gist of the message without listening. This is for both people who call my cell # and those that call my gvoice number. You will be fine.
 
Just to be clear, (as others have said)

Google Voice can act as voicemail with your regular number.

You dont need to pay for those inferior visual voicemail things from carriers.

It can also do much more:

- transcribe voicemail to text
- act as a separate line,
- forward calls from your GV number to multiple lines
- send/receive SMS
- act as a VOIP gateway (requires separate 3rd party app)


it's really one of the best apps out there. The transcriptions are sometimes hilariously wrong, but you usually can understand enough to get the reason the person is calling.
 
alostpacket said:
Just to be clear, (as others have said)

Google Voice can act as voicemail with your regular number.

You dont need to pay for those inferior visual voicemail things from carriers.

It can also do much more:

- transcribe voicemail to text
- act as a separate line,
- forward calls from your GV number to multiple lines
- send/receive SMS
- act as a VOIP gateway (requires separate 3rd party app)


it's really one of the best apps out there. The transcriptions are sometimes hilariously wrong, but you usually can understand enough to get the reason the person is calling.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to quote this because its 100% true and this is how I use it. I use GVoice for my voicemail on my regular line and it works perfectly. Instant voicemail notification with message transcription as well as the message. SMS (and now MMS being introduced slowly) makes it more and more worth it.

One of the coolest things my friend uses it for is his apartment in NYC. The buzzer downstairs calls a number so he has a GV number that the buzzer dials and then it rings his house phone, cell phone and GV number in Google Talk so no matter where he is in the apartment he can buzz the person in - its really cool to watch.
 
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