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Question for Google Voice Users

Alfdroid said:
I signed up for GV for the free texting...plus, since I sit in front of a PC all day, I love being able to text people using my keyboard. Once I get my Inc., I plan on switching completely to GV and giving everyone my GV number.

For those of us that don't have a home phone and use our cell # for everything, GV is also great because it lets you screen calls.

There is a down side to this, though. Since your GV # is not a Verizon #, people who call you will be charged minutes, even if they are Verizon customers.
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If you set GV to show its number on inbound calls, and have F&F and add that number to it, you will not be charged any minutes on incoming calls.
 
jamesdean said:
If you set GV to show its number on inbound calls, and have F&F and add that number to it, you will not be charged any minutes on incoming calls.
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But other people will pay if they are Verizon users. I haven't used my number except for giving out to companies so I can screen and to place outgoing calls for work by dialing my Google number first, then entering the number I want to dial. Helps by saving a lot of minutes if you have your GV number as a friend & family number.
 
ejkeebler said:
doesnt the texting make it a little awkward to interface with some of the features of the sense ui? i mean if I text through google voice, when i go into my contacts, will i see that communication in the text messaging area? Also when calling with google voice, is there any delay? i mean right now I use it with a voip phone on my router and there is a seoncd or two delay that makes it awkward to talk on, so I rarely use it. I'd actually just like it to show my google voice number and use my verizon minutes and nothing more, but I dont think it can be configured that way?
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There is no delay at all. I use it all the time every day, I have had no issues other than 2 dropped calls, not sure what was to blame.

It does use your minutes on Verizon.
 
Does anyone have an extra invite that they can send my way? I have tried for months now to get one and i keep trying but i have yet to receive any invite from google
 
You would use up minutes regardless if you used GV or not, unless you're talking on the same network. Thats when it gets tricky.

Incoming and outgoing calls on the same network going through GV would cost minutes for both parties. Some people may not care about this, depending on how many minutes a month you use.
 
StormSurge said:
So, according to this article, unless I do some configuring to my friend's numbers, using GV negates my call plan with VZ & I will be charged for outgoing calls?

Am I reading that right?
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From what I understand, If you place you Google Voice number as one of your family and friends (which you are allowed to call for free) if you call that number to call out, then your calls will be for free.

Here it is:

However, the good news is if you have the circle of Friends and Family, you can essentially make unlimited phone calls by adding your Google Voice number as one of your Friends and Family numbers. How’s this work? In order to call out using Google Voice, you have to first dial your GV number, then dial the number you want to call. Therefore technically every call is to Google Voice, who then redirects your call for free. I’d predict that Verizon will make this more difficult if GV continues to grow.


Please someone correct me if I am wrong.
 
cuban11182 said:
From what I understand, If you place you Google Voice number as one of your family and friends (which you are allowed to call for free) if you call that number to call out, then your calls will be for free.

Here it is:

However, the good news is if you have the circle of Friends and Family, you can essentially make unlimited phone calls by adding your Google Voice number as one of your Friends and Family numbers. How
Click to expand...
 
Does simply adding the GV # to your Friends & Family list work or does GV dial ANOTHER number in between, meaning you would have to add that one as well.
 
When you call it, it asks for you password...like voicemail. It then says to make a call press 1, then it says dial the number and click #.

I think with Droid it is easier though.
 
StormSurge said:
Does simply adding the GV # to your Friends & Family list work or does GV dial ANOTHER number in between, meaning you would have to add that one as well.
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That depends... the official GV app DOES dial another intermediate number so THAT number would need to be in F&F.

There is another GV dialer app that dials out through your GV number ONLY so if you used that app, you would get free calls if your GV number was on your F&F.
 
jprow507 said:
That depends... the official GV app DOES dial another intermediate number so THAT number would need to be in F&F.

There is another GV dialer app that dials out through your GV number ONLY so if you used that app, you would get free calls if your GV number was on your F&F.
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I have not looked closely enough but I believe that the "intermediate" number that GV calls when you initiate a GV call from your mobile can change....
 
Has anyone set up their google voice with an existing cell line? I read about people doing it on the droid to avoid paying verizon for visual voice mail. I would test it but I don't have internet on my current phone. Would doing this affect my standard texts and therefore I could drop my current $10/mo texting plan.
 
So if you have F&F and add your GV number to it ALL incoming calls to that number are free.

If you want free outgoing calls you either have to add the intermediate number the official Google Voice app uses to F&F (which evidently changes periodically so is not practical to do) OR use one of the unofficial apps either

Google Voice Dialer (which costs $1.99) or GV (which is free but no longer supported, i.e. no updates or fixes).

Has anyone had experience with either or recommendations to get free outgoing calls with F&F?
 
jprow507 said:
So if you have F&F and add your GV number to it ALL incoming calls to that number are free.

If you want free outgoing calls you either have to add the intermediate number the official Google Voice app uses to F&F (which evidently changes periodically so is not practical to do) OR use one of the unofficial apps either

Google Voice Dialer (which costs $1.99) or GV (which is free but no longer supported, i.e. no updates or fixes).

Has anyone had experience with either or recommendations to get free outgoing calls with F&F?
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I use Flex Dialer Pro, 3.00 paid app. I like it because you can include/exclude settings for number you either want or not want to go through GV.
 
jlb0305 said:
Has anyone set up their google voice with an existing cell line? I read about people doing it on the droid to avoid paying verizon for visual voice mail. I would test it but I don't have internet on my current phone. Would doing this affect my standard texts and therefore I could drop my current $10/mo texting plan.
Click to expand...

Your question is two parts. I've been using Google Voice for a while on my BlackBerry.

1) There is a separate functionality in Google Voice where you can associate your VZW voicemail with GV so that GV handles it. This way you get the e-mails with (sometimes poorly) transcribed messages and they're archived to your GV account. The transcriptions are usually good enough that you can figure out what the person was trying to say without even having to listen to the message.

2) Texting is separate. I use GV to text my friends who aren't on Verizon since my text plan includes free text messages to VZW phones. If I used GV to text my wife, she would get "charged" for an incoming text whereas if I text her through the normal text app, it's VZW to VZW so it's included. (Did I explain that well at all?)
 
since i use my cell phone for everything, i didn't set up a GV number because I don't want to give out a new number to all my contacts.

i chose the other option when setting up GV. what other benefits can i take advantage of setting it up this way besides visual voice mail?
 
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