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Is Google Voice Doomed To Be 2nd-Class Messaging System?

Posted by timothy on from the works-for-me dept.

itwbennett writes "There's a lot to like about Google Voice, including 'voicemail transcriptions, the ability to send and receive unlimited text messages by phone or website, and recording incoming calls,' says Voice convert Kevin Purdy. But when it comes to app integration, Voice is falling short — even on Android phones: 'Most apps that do neat things with incoming texts, like read them out loud when you're driving, can't work with Voice. Tasker, a crazy, nerdy automation tool that can do things like turn your volume up when you get a text from your wife, can't work with Voice.... Online services that text you to verify or remind you are about 50/50.' Google employee Nikhyl Singhal wrote in a Google+ post that 'Hangouts is designed to be the future of Google Voice.' But what Voice users like Purdy are looking for is some sort of 'assurance that Google Voice can work just like any other text messaging system.'"

7 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Saves me from having to buy cheap cellphones by mlts · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For Craigslist and other uses for a disposable number where I don't trust the other party, Google Voice is very handy. Just this use alone makes it worth having.

  2. Doesn't work outside of US by elh_inny · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Which means it's still very much a niche product.
    Once it works in Europe, China and India then we can talk about it having any signficant market share.
    Even if every single person in the US switched to Google Voice I think it would still be less users than Skype has already...

    1. Re:Doesn't work outside of US by Trimaxion · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yup. If you like Google Voice, don't upgrade to Hangouts yet. I did so a while ago, and admittedly, Hangouts is pretty cool, but it comes with a surprise: it takes away your ability to make outbound GV calls in the GMail interface. Fortunately there was an option to downgrade to the old chat interface.

      Engadget says that the phone calling feature will be returned in Hangouts 'soon'... http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/20/hangouts-upgrade-disables-outbound-google-voice-calls-in-desktop/

  3. Google Voice is amazing by slaker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google Voice does a number of things far better than any other system that more than make up for whatever deficiencies the author believes it might have.

    I will preface this by saying that I am a Sprint cellular customer, so Google Voice can be fully integrated into my telephone service.

    1. My cell number is integrated in to Google Voice. This means that I can answer calls from anyplace I happen to be logged in to the desktop version of Gmail or have the Google Voice app installed. This means that I do not need to have my phone tied to my actual person 24 hours a day. I can answer a call while I'm reading on a tablet in my bathtub or while my phone is charging in another room.

    2. Google Voice transcribes voicemails so that they are delivered as E-mails, so that I don't have to listen to them. This is worth actual money to me. I hate voice mail with a passion.

    3. I dislike SMS messages because, again, I don't like having to have my telephone permanently anchored to my body. Google Voice allows me to filter and deliver SMS messages as if they were E-mails and to respond to them as such. SMS messages never hit my phone. I've never opened the SMS app on it. I just respond to e-mails. Again, this is a tremendously valuable service.

    If I'm missing something from not having texts delivered to my phone, I don't know and I don't care what that is, because as far as I'm concerned, Google Voice is doing every single thing I want it to already.

    --
    -- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
    1. Re:Google Voice is amazing by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

      Here's one from my wife (native Californian female):

      Hey, it's me. I just cannot. I about bye bye do hanging in there. Later has hey, if you're gonna you know I love you bye bye.

      Still not so good.

      I don't understand... isn't that just how California girls talk?

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:Google Voice is amazing by bitt3n · · Score: 5, Funny

      my favorite part of google voice is leaving a message for someone who uses it, and they read the transcript as "human-sized mango octopus glovebox get scammed by the hamburglar one sousaphone excoriated in the afterlife," and then they listen to the message to find out what I actually said, and they find out that's actually what I said.

      --
      how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
  4. Please, not hangout by Rich0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hangout is great, I get it. If they REALLY implemented Voice in Hangout I'd be fine if it were just as simple to utilize.

    However, what I don't want is when my Aunt Tilly wants to call me that I say "wait, I don't have a phone number any more - just go to the local library where they have broadband, ask them to install the Google Talk plugin or whatever, and start a hangout with me." Oh, and I'd like it to still ring my home phone, which is just a phone (not a smartphone, not a cell phone - a handset, two pairs of wires, and about $1 in circuitry).

    I love Google Voice because it is a bridge that allows me to interface modern technologies like the web/mobile/etc with basic telephony (SMS, PSTN/etc) which are used by everybody who isn't under the age of 25.