whats stopping you from using google voice as your main number

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Nvidiaguy07

Nvidiaguy07

Platinum Member
Feb 22, 2008
2,846
4
81
I've been patiently waiting for google voice to improve, but it honestly seems like it hasnt made any progress in at least a year.

My biggest complaints are:

Not reliable: Sometimes texts will go through hours later, and sometimes not at all. Same with receiving texts. I can only imagine that the same happens with calls.

MMS: Doesnt work. If someone sends me one i have no idea. How hard would it be for them to just send it to my gmail or something.

Lag: doesnt happen all the time, but sometimes I can definitley hear lag over conversations.

Crappy app/phone integration: Every google voice convo is just in one big folder. Mt stock texting on my phone is a million times better. Honestly how hard is it for them to separate the voicemails and texts?

Im sure theres more annoyances that I cnat think of, but seriously wtf is google doing? I think google voice is great, and am excited about it, but its just not there yet, and seems like it probably never will be.
 
dlock13

dlock13

Platinum Member
Oct 24, 2006
2,806
2
81
Nvidiaguy07 said:
I've been patiently waiting for google voice to improve, but it honestly seems like it hasnt made any progress in at least a year.

My biggest complaints are:

Not reliable: Sometimes texts will go through hours later, and sometimes not at all. Same with receiving texts. I can only imagine that the same happens with calls.

MMS: Doesnt work. If someone sends me one i have no idea. How hard would it be for them to just send it to my gmail or something.

Lag: doesnt happen all the time, but sometimes I can definitley hear lag over conversations.

Crappy app/phone integration: Every google voice convo is just in one big folder. Mt stock texting on my phone is a million times better. Honestly how hard is it for them to separate the voicemails and texts?

Im sure theres more annoyances that I cnat think of, but seriously wtf is google doing? I think google voice is great, and am excited about it, but its just not there yet, and seems like it probably never will be.
Click to expand...
That's the Google problem. They never fully develop a product when it's released.

Regardless, I only use Google Voice for my voicemails since using it as my main number would be a nuisance for everyone. "Here is my number to call/text me, and here is my other number/email so if you had to send a picture to me it would be to this."

Honestly, it is mostly the MMSing that makes me not use it 100%. However, I'm still extremely happy to use it as my voicemail service. It works flawlessly, and I love the transcribing of it.
 
cronos

cronos

Diamond Member
Nov 7, 2001
9,380
26
101
This was brought up a while ago and my answer is still the same: international texting. Apparently it's hard to make this work. I understand that opening it up for free like before is just begging for abuse, so I expect some kind of premium. Just decide on something already and get it done. I'll pay per text or bundle or whatever, it doesn't matter.
 
A

alent1234

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2002
3,915
0
0
and no email to text service like all the carriers have

with android doing so well google will not dare improve GV to the point where it makes their platform carrier independent
 
A

abaez

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2000
7,155
1
81
You can have GV send you an email when you get a text and you can reply to the email and it will reply to that text.

I have never had an issue with delayed texts in the four years I've been using it.

MMS is an issue I guess? Everyone I know uses email to send a picture.

Lag: This is not a GV issue. GV does not handle the call, it just connects you. The rest of it is handled by your provider.

I will give you the crappy app. It's not very good at all.
 
A

alent1234

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2002
3,915
0
0
i mean with verizon you can send an email to 1234567890@vtext.com and it will text their phone. there is no sms/smtp gateway for GV. i hate my blackberry and wanted to send some work SMS's to my personal phone and don't want to mess with the free text programs anymore
 
Zen0

Zen0

Senior member
Jan 30, 2011
980
0
0
Google voice was a novelty on my Droid and was erased after finding it being a complete beta service.
 
M

MrX8503

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2005
4,529
0
0
I like the idea of google voice but it's simply not reliable. I can't tell everyone my GV number if I miss calls and txts. That's a big no no.
 
hanoverphist

hanoverphist

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2006
9,867
23
76
i use my gv number as my "landline" to give to people that i want to be able to screen out. i dont have the gv app installed anymore, it was annoying. as for texts/ mms, i use my cell for all that anyway, and if the pics are too large people will email them anyway. i only have a handful of friends with smart phones anyway (and of those, about half dont even know how to email a pic anyway), so its not really that big a deal so far.
 
cheezy321

cheezy321

Diamond Member
Dec 31, 2003
6,218
2
0
Much like many Google products (and linux), it never feels like a fully finished product.
 
Gooberlx2

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
6
91
I've been using my GV# as primary for some time now. Just activated the full Sprint integration last night, using my GV number instead of Sprint's.

The only issues for me are:

1) People can't MMS to my GV#, so they have to know my Sprint# or reply to an MMS I've sent them previously (SMS will show GV#, MMS will show Sprint#). I rarely MMS, so it's largely not a big issue for me.

*this is something I bet will be addressed at some point in the future*

2) The GV app doesn't allow selective notifications. I'd much rather use handcent for all messaging purposes, but GV app for the voicemails. To avoid double notifications, I have all GV app notifications disabled, and get SMS messages instead when voicemails arrive; then manually switch to the GV app as needed.

Last thought about the Sprint/GV integration:
Regular calls will show as GV#. This means no needing to use the GV app to dial out, or dial the GV-routed numbers directly....which means I can take advantage of my free anymobile minutes while having my GV# number show for caller ID, finally. It should also work for any phone, smart or dumb.
 
S

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
9,427
16
81
Delayed texts was a problem in the pre-Eclair era, I think. Never had an issue like that with the current iterations of Voice.

MMS? Email-to-text? C'mon, this is 2011. If you're on GV, you're getting push email on your smartphone anyway. MMS gives you compatibility with legacy dumbphone users, but we're a couple of years away from its obsolescence.

I've actually just started giving out my GV number as my main number. Calls forward to my phone, and texts obviously just work. Only issue is if I direct dial, the caller ID doesn't match, but who cares?

edit: Google could make it a 100x better by opening up the texting API so we can run third-party client apps, though.
 
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C

CVSiN

Diamond Member
Jul 19, 2004
9,289
0
0
now that it's 100% integrated with Sprint. I've converted my Sprint number to my Gvoice number.
So far so good..
still have perfect MMS capabilities but voice and VMs and texts do use Gvoice as they should.
preview and everything else is working like a champ.
 
M

M0RPH

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2003
3,302
1
0
cronos said:
This was brought up a while ago and my answer is still the same: international texting. Apparently it's hard to make this work. I understand that opening it up for free like before is just begging for abuse, so I expect some kind of premium. Just decide on something already and get it done. I'll pay per text or bundle or whatever, it doesn't matter.
Click to expand...

Same here. I already buy credits for international calls, so why can I not use those credits for international texts? Instead i had to go to Skype to do it.
 
palswim

palswim

Golden Member
Nov 23, 2003
1,049
0
71
www.palswim.net
I'll probably use GV primarily when my cell contract expires and I can port my number to GV without penalty. I do already have a primary GV number, but without a smart phone, I can't easily make calls "from" my GV number. So, I'll maintain my current GV number and my current cell phone's number, but both on GV, and probably just join Virgin Mobile with a wholly new number that I won't give to anyone.

But, the call forwarding and messaging have worked perfectly for me so far.

Smartphone users, can a GV app (official or otherwise) hook into your "messaging" app and just add new text messages to there?

My only hesitation is whether this will all work as smoothly as I envision it now.
 
Gooberlx2

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
6
91
palswim said:
I can't easily make calls "from" my GV number.
Click to expand...

When someone texts your GV number (and that message is forwarded to your phone), you get a number from some other area code right? (like 617 or 406 or something). That's essentially a 'hash lookup' associating your phone number with that contact. I'm pretty sure you can call that number directly.
 
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