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Goodbye, Google Voice
itwbennett writes "The trouble with Google Voice is that the way we use phones has changed — and it hasn't kept up with the times: 'Fewer people have a mobile phone and a business line and a home line that might make One Number For All so. Text message costs (which are actually close to nothing) are almost always bundled into contract costs. Automatic voice transcription, while still a mean feat, is no longer such a magic trick,' writes Kevin Purdy in a blog post explaining why he's breaking up with Google Voice. The main problem is that, despite some very cool features, Google Voice doesn't play well with others — even apps in its own family. And it doesn't look as though that's going to get better anytime soon." I've been very happy with Google Voice for a few years now, and one reason is the transcribed voice messages, which may get hilariously garbled sometimes, but are almost always correct enough to be useful.
Google Voice is not being phased out (yet) by google.
This is just some doosh on itworld ranting about junk on his blog.
I use Google Voice as my primary phone number. This is because (like Stephen Hawking), I am quadriplegic and unable to speak due to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease). I use it to text and for the relatively few "voice" telephone conversations I have (using my eyegaze computer which - via text-to-speech - "speaks" what I type). I use it for texts daily and for at least one vocal conversation a week (I use web-based video conference multiple times per week to conduct my biomedical and technology research business).
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
Maybe it is a good headline because it caught my attention and drove me to comment. Being backwoods senior citizens, my wife and I use google voice all the time. No cell service where we live so we stay in touch with our family and our volunteer activities without paying for long distance using google voice. Besides, some of us less dexterous seniors need a keyboard to respond to texts. Google if you are listening, don't dump voice cuz some yuppie in a metro area has a bug up his a**
Is that you? To reiterate another poster's comment, this is just some dude's blog entry.
Seriously? WTF with the headline, Timothy? Is /. Into sensationalist, eye-grabbing headlines now? How about maybe only showing comments 5 at a time while you're at it? That should garner some ad revenue. That title is *very* misleading.
Some of the complaints in this blog were mentioned in a post by a google employee 4.5 months ago:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+N...
... rest assured, weâ(TM)re working to support SMS messages for all Google Voice phone numbers ... we are listening and working hard to make this happen, but we need to work with carriers and this can take some time.
It will take some time before Google Voice is fully integrated into Hangouts, and we appreciate your patience along the way.ï
there is also mention of third-party apps which, on android, use various methods to achieve VOIP through Google Voice on the handset, which isnt a feature that Google Voice currently allows (it must route your call via an actual phone call).. these apps have been warned that they will be no longer to do that by May 15th of this year..
im guessing that we will be seeing some changes to Google Voice in the coming few months... maybe even things that make this itworld blog post seem kind of silly.
(disclosure: been using google voice since its first year, wish it could be better... 'breaking up' with it over the stuff in TFA is silly, some of those gripes are silly)
I use Google voice exclusively. It allows me to have a phone number separated from my service provider which I probably won't have forever (so I don't have to worry whether I'll be able to port my number over). It allows me to make phone calls from my computer for phone interviews and the like (headset/mic so I can type). It also allows me to text people without paying Verizon a dime for bullshit reasons.
-SaNo
I use Google voice exclusively. It allows me to have a phone number separated from my service provider which I probably won't have forever (so I don't have to worry whether I'll be able to port my number over). It allows me to make phone calls from my computer for phone interviews and the like (headset/mic so I can type). It also allows me to text people without paying Verizon a dime for bullshit reasons.
I use GV in exactly the same way for exactly the same reasons. I just seamlessly "ported" from one wireless provider to another a few months ago. Unlike "real porting" I could use both phones while I was getting things setup and switch my inbound call routing back and forth between the devices at will.
This article is just some hipster douchebag's whiny blog. I tagged this slashdot headline as troll.
Of course, you *do* have to worry that Google is planning to subsume Voice into Hangouts. That decision is so obviously retarded it can only have something to do with Google's attempt to make Plus get traction. Oh, and maybe someday GV will support MMS. It's annoying that those messages get blackholed.
Where is native VoIP support? That's the feature that would be most appealing, the ability to make and take calls to other 'real' phones from devices with only data access as a native feature.
I know there are other third party apps that can do this like Skype or Line2 and there are apparently back-door ways of doing with GoogleVoice (which according the the Google blog post quoted above aren't supported).
But I always expected this to be a Google Voice feature and it hasn't been.
Say goodbye to Kevin Purdy.
I use google voice a lot.
....they've always been worthless content free clickbait, but it seems like we're seeing them more often lately.
It's also great if you have a mother-in-law on the other side of the world. The cost per-minute for calls from phone to phone (she just cannot seem to figure out Skype) is as good as any provider.
My wife talks for an hour and it's just a few cents. Or at least that's how it seems. Plus, we can do all kinds of other tricks with voice to text and other things.
I was about to get really pissed if this story was about Google pulling the Voice service.
You are welcome on my lawn.
The Obi202 will stop working in a couple of months when google voice drops XMPP support.
If you currently rely on the Obi202, make other plans.
MMS texts (and images) come through but only if sent from a Sprint phone. I was rather surprised one day when I received one - I assumed google finally added support for mms. It wasn't until after a lot of trial and error and sleuthing that I figured out it was only if the mms was from a sprint phone.
The article is correct - google voice should be alerting someone (sender or receiver) the message wasn't delivered, but my hunch is that Sprint is providing the connectivity for Google Voice and they just throw away 3rd party MMS messages as part of the contract in order to keep bandwidth down.
Better known as 318230.
Look up: Obi202. It's a small box that allows you to use Google Voice not just as "call forwarder" but as your primary phone number via VOIP.
Yup, and they advertise that it won't work after May 15th with Google Voice. Apparently Google will be taking steps to block 3rd-party VOIP integration on that date. I'm not quite sure how they'll manage to stop it entirely though, unless they eliminate Hangout support as well.
Wait! One dickhead stops using Google Voice and that earns a frontpage article on Slashdot??
SERIOUSLY?!?
Ok, come the fuck on!!!
Can this site make even a minimal effort to not be total shit? For quite a long time, Slashdot was very educational and informative but, over the past few years, it has sunk to near-uselessness. It's only because some people steadfastly refuse to give up despite the fact they are fighting a losing battle that the site isn't entirely crap.
One guy stops using Google Voice and that earns a Slashdot article.
Wow.
Dear Kevin,
That is pretty cool, I guess. Not that I care what you think.
Signed,
Everyone else
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
As a backdoor user, here is how to do it. The only cavot is you can not dial out with the desk phone hardware.
Step one. Get a free SIP account. There are several providers, pick one. A SIP account will have an account looking like an email address/ User at provider format.
Step 2. Get a free or paid DID (direct inward dial) phone number. This gives GV a number to forward to. Link it to your SIP account.
Step 3. Get a SIP client, either a softphone for free or a ATA/IP phone. Connect it to your SIP account.
Now you have a number GV can call. This works well for international travel. Take your IP phone with you. Family can call on your local GV number. Google forwards to the local IP Call number to link to a plain SIP VOIP call that you can take worldwide.
In other news, I had hotdogs today. Though I suppose that would be on slashdot too if I had written a fucking dissertation about it. Who gives a fuck if some random jackass stops using one of Google's apps?
The Obihai boxes (I have one which I use for Google Voice) use XMPP for Google Voice.
Google is killing XMPP support and the Obi boxes will no longer directly support Google Voice at that point.
Fortunately, the Obi boxes also do standard SIP. You can get a SIP account from a VOIP provider and a DID. Point your Google Voice number at the DID and you'll get incoming calls.
For outgoing calls, most decent VOIP providers will allow you to set your outgoing caller ID after verifying that the number is valid.
It's not free, but it works and it's relatively inexpensive.
Free and low cost phone numbers are available from multiple sources. This is not a unique property of google voice.
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See? We can play that game too.
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You mean there are *non* drunk / illiterate wombats?
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i agree - silently dropping MMS is a killer
afaict, AT&T and verizon refuse to send the data to google so there's nothing technical that google can do, ie this has nothing to do with google being stingy and everything to do with AT&T and verizon being a virtual duopoly and using their market position to exclude competitors
here's an article talking about it. and from the google engineer's google+ page (emphasis mine) ...
T-Mobile has allowed MMS messages from their users to be sent to Google Voice users.
My blog
I am currently living outside of the U.S.. I still have a Google Voice number, because my permenant address is still in the United States. With Google Voice, we can make calls to people living in the United States still for free. That's a pretty epic usage.
Same here. It also allows me to give out a US address to those who can't process international numbers. A surprisingly large number of very large businesses can't process an international number (for one, nobody in the IRS not in the International Department can call international, for another, Wells Fargo can send me international mail, but also can't call international) - or so say the people I've spoken with in such organizations. It could be training, rather than technical/financial, but most companies lock down international dialing for fear of scams. There are still constant reports of PBX exploits generating $100,000+ phone bills to a 900 number equivalent outside the US.
The problem with Voice is that I signed up in the US, so I get free calls. But those that don't sign up until they are outside the US will not get that treatment, unless they sign up from within the US, and Google has taken to identifying IPs based on usage, not GeoIP, so you could use a VPN service with a US ARIN address physically located in Texas and Google will still consider you as being in Europe. The only "reliable" away is to have someone in the US sign up for you, then send you the login.
Learn to love Alaska
Holy crap. Fuck you, non-editors.