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Why do I want Google Voice??!!

Aimy77 said:
@bezerk19, my plan doesn't qualify. I'm on the 450min individual plan. :(
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Yeah I'm sorry to hear that the lower end plans at Verizon will remove the Friends & Family capabilities (that's how they get you). I'm sure there is another way, look at my previous post regarding "unlimited free calling..." there is something in there that talks about "sipgate". I haven't used this yet so I'm not 100% sure if it will work. I did find an app called Sipdroid VoIP + video calls, i'm going to try it out later when I get home, it claims calls work on VoIP? who knows, we will see. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if that will integrate with GV.
 
GV will integrate with SIP fairly easily. You basically get to pick a new phone number for SIP and in your GV setup you add the new number as a phone to ring. You also need some software to handle the phone calls (I used X-Lite). Only thing is you better have a great internet connection or it will be choppy.
 
I know MMS messages are not supported on Google Voice, but anyone have any idea what happens to the message when its sent to your GV #? I had someone send me a message and i didn't get any notification and neither did the sender. Is there a way the sender can get a message, or is there a way i can configure GV to forward MMS message to my actual cell #?

This might be one of the elements that might hinder my ability to give out my GV to everyone, I do get MMS from time to time and if there isn't a way for me to get notified when someone tries to send me a picture message i'm not sure I'll give out the number yet.
 
Marlboro said:
I had a similar problem.

First, you have to get on the internet and pick a Google number. https://www.google.com/voice

Next, download the app. If youve already downloaded and installed the app on your phone and tried to do it before picking the number, uninstall and then reinstall.
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So I can't use my Verizon number for Google voice? Won't people be like - who the heck is this?

lol
 
Tonight I tried calling my GV number from my home phone (I have Verizon service for my cell phone). The phone rang four times in the home phone headset before it began ringing the cell phone. I clicked the cell to answer, and by the time it gave the greeting, in the home phone handset I could hear my voice mail "Can't take your call now" message. Yes, Verizon takes a long time to get the call through. For this reason, I'll keep using my real number and just use GV for voice mail transcriptions (as bad as they can be).
 
bezerk19 said:
From what I've experienced, I believe it only asks for their name if they don't appear in your contact list.
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...and only if you have call screening enabled. You don't have to. My clients found it took too long to get to me so I shut that off.

I use GV for a few reasons.

1. I love visual voicemail. I love never having to call in to get messages. Yeah the transcription is so-so, but I can always listen if it doesn't make sense. The play button is RIGHT THERE on my phone.

2. I get Google voicemail alerts from the top bar - forwarding to SMS was redundant, I don't do it.

2. I wanted to kill my business landline - it was costing me $70 a month.

Calls to my business number now go through Google Voice and they ring my home phone and mobile phone (both) during the workday and after hours and weekends go straight to voicemail. I can change this behavior - what number to ring and what days and hours to do it - at anytime.

I have GV set to show me caller ID for the caller (not the GV#) so I can see if I want to answer or not. If I am home, I answer on my home phone - incoming calls are free there, of course. If I want to send it to VM, I do that with my cell.

I now get an immediate voicemail alert on my cell phone when a client leaves a message. After hours when my phones don't ring at all for business calls, I also get an immediate alert, which is a lot faster than before when I had to sit at my desk and think to check my voicemail from time to time. Which I never did on weekends anyway.

If I call a client on my cell, I use GV to do it. So that's the number they see. Making personal calls I use my VZW number.

3. I have one voicemail greeting for business calls and another one for personal calls. I can give each person a different one if i want, but so far two suits my needs just fine.

While I'd like to ditch the $20 extra a month I pay for messaging, I don't think I can, yet. I like Handcent, for one. And I already am saving a lot of $ having basically ditched my business landline.

I don't use GV for personal calls or SMS - just for voicemail and work calls.
 
Ok so I got Google Voice and have been using for a while now. I like the free texting of course but two things really stink. One is just a minor annoyance and that's not being to upload a sound file to use as a greeting. The other though has me considering dropping GV altogether. That is the call quality. I live in Wisconsin and it appears all calls handled by GV are going through Kansas. My GV number is local to where I live (not sure if that has any affect at all) but incoming and outgoing calls all have latency and some amount of echo to them. I've had calls where I try to input keyboard numbers (reordering prescriptions) and due to the aforementioned problems (at least I assume) I can never get all the prescription numbers through to the automated system on the other end. So all things considered why keep using GV? I pay for enough minutes already and have a texting plan which I'll probably never use all of and I can get my voicemail handled through YouMail. Whaddya think?
 
u have to pay for a texting plan with verizon. with GV u get unlimited texting for free. update to the newer version of google voice to get direct access numbers. makes it faster and doesnt require data anymore.
 
For *me* it's about

Free txt (I dropped my txt plan)
Call filtering - How awesome is it to be able to send "XYZ Company" Straight to voicemail, or have it so when your wife calls, it rings your work/cell etc... It's all that fancy filtering that I love.

I also like using the web to dial any number I want having it ring my work number (aka free call).

Having Voicemail / Txt all in one spot is nice too all web or phone viewable.
 
Well its sounds like you don't need it. GV is not for everyone and can be more of a headache then helpful. Personally GV works fine for me but I live near Silicon Valley so data connections are fast and don't have to go far. I use GV paired with my work phone (Dinc) to separate work calls from personal calls. I don't have to use any work minutes and can spend hours on the phone for personal use. When my company looks at the bill its only work related stuff they see. If I leave the company I still have my personal number that I can just forward to another new phone. GV saves me $100 a month in phone charges.
 
I would love to have the options GV offers for contacts, but I don't have GV because the GV # counts against my minutes so I stick with the free Verizon to Verizon calling. The way I look at it for me, saving $10 on unlimited text messages won't matter if I go over my minutes in calling.
 
Dmtalon said:
For *me* it's about

Free txt (I dropped my txt plan)
Call filtering - How awesome is it to be able to send "XYZ Company" Straight to voicemail, or have it so when your wife calls, it rings your work/cell etc... It's all that fancy filtering that I love.

I also like using the web to dial any number I want having it ring my work number (aka free call).

Having Voicemail / Txt all in one spot is nice too all web or phone viewable.
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You can re-route numbers to be sent straight to your voicemail without GV too.
 
rapidsandroid said:
I would love to have the options GV offers for contacts, but I don't have GV because the GV # counts against my minutes so I stick with the free Verizon to Verizon calling. The way I look at it for me, saving $10 on unlimited text messages won't matter if I go over my minutes in calling.
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You can use Google Voice for texts and still make calls with your verizon number. I have it set so everytime i make a call it asks me if i would like ot make the call with google voice or not.
 
birthofahero said:
You can re-route numbers to be sent straight to your voicemail without GV too.
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I understand, but that was just an example of the filtering. I only currently have two contacts that route to voicemail.

But I have multiple groups that do certain things (i.e. ring my cell, work or home number any/all/or a combination of).

As for minutes... I have the lowest I could get 450 and probably use 10-20% of those on average. I also have GV setup so that it asks me each time I dial if I want to use GV or my Cell. (again I'm not calling very often)

My Parents have GV as well, and they use that number to define which of their cell's ring. Meaning, they have both address books in GV and set so that if it's one of Mom's friends it rings her cell, one of Dad's rings his... And then of course, if it's family it rings both.

Lastly, while a little goofy, I like the idea of having a forever number. I picked my number (i.e. not a local area code, but it spells something I wanted). As is, I can have that go to any phone I want in the future. While I did port my cell number to Verizon when I just switched, I didn't *have* too, I only ever give out my GV number any more.
 
k.electron said:
u have to pay for a texting plan with verizon. with GV u get unlimited texting for free. update to the newer version of google voice to get direct access numbers. makes it faster and doesnt require data anymore.
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How do I update so I don't have to use data anymore?
 
I really don't use GV to the fullest potential, I just wanted the visual voicemail. One thing that I noticed lately is they offer a widget that will connect people to you, but keep your number private. I now have my number on a website with relatively high traffic for media contacts and emergency situations. I'll be keeping GV a while longer now. :)
 
Colchicine said:
I really don't use GV to the fullest potential, I just wanted the visual voicemail. One thing that I noticed lately is they offer a widget that will connect people to you, but keep your number private. I now have my number on a website with relatively high traffic for media contacts and emergency situations. I'll be keeping GV a while longer now. :)
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I've seen that widget, but are you sure it does that? When the person puts in their number to connect them to you, Google might call them "from" your number, so they then have your number on their caller ID.

I haven't tested, but it seems logical enough that Google might do it.
 
A little OT, but has anyone noticed the Google Voicemail sound quality is pretty crappy?

It sounds like sandpaper scraping across the microphone.

I don't have any other problem with call quality, by the way....
 
right now I use it for the very much superior voice mail system. the option to use one number in lieu of many will always seem like a nice option should I need it in the future.
 
well you can use it for online calling over wifi if you set it up the right way... to bad i havent found a good tutorial
 
yojoe600 said:
well you can use it for online calling over wifi if you set it up the right way... to bad i havent found a good tutorial
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No, you can't. Google Voice is not a VOIP service.

You can use a Google Voice number in conjunction with other services to create a VOIP session, but Google Voice can't be used for WiFi calling.
 
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