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Google Hangouts and SMS Integration: A Mess, For Now
Android Headlines reports that a bug in the Google Hangouts app is causing confusion for users who would like to send and receive SMS messages. According to the article, [S]ome users are reporting an issue that is preventing the merging of SMS messages with Hangouts. The exact nature of what is causing this error is still unknown, as Google has not divulged any concrete information. They did state though that they are working on a fix and will have it ready for release as soon as they figure out what is going on.
On this front, I wish there were a good roadmap for all the overlapping and sometimes circular-seeming options for Google's various flavors of VoiP and messaging. Between Google Voice, Google Plus, Messenger (not Facebook's Messenger), Gmail, and now Google Fi, it's hard to tell quite where the there begins. After setting up a new phone through Google Fi, I find that the very pleasant full-screen text-message window I used to like with Google Voice is now one I can't figure out how to reach, and the screen directs me to use Hangouts instead.
... I find that the very pleasant full-screen text-message window I used to like with Google Voice is now one I can't figure out how to reach,...
Is it just me that finds some Google apps quite disappointing? Let's look at its Maps:
Why does the screen turn off [by default] once the app is in use? Waze doesn't do this! How does Google expect us to use this app? I can't be bothered hitting the screen to prevent it from darkening on me!
I have always found its messaging apps just plain ugly. Am I alone? Google should take a look at Viber, Go SMS and many others who have done things right in my opinion.
Google should wake up!
Just kill the awful Hangouts app and its horrible SMS handling and start again. My old Nokia from the early 00's did SMS better.
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Agreed, except being rich and first world does not mean one does not have valid complaints.
Whoever thinks that mess has just one bug? In my android phone it merged SMS and google. Some contacts will allow me choose sms or hangout. Some will give me only hangout and some only MMS. Google, and probably all the small screen players, keep introducing new icons, new clickable, touchable, swipable interfaces. And it is not obvious or intuitive at all. May be the younger generation that seems to be texting all the time get it. But it is quite frustrating to someone who is used to the desktop and mouse for ages, since the days of MicroVAX workstation.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
This is an issue on which google should seriously consider getting their shit together.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
For about a week I received the same SMS message every minute a couple of times, next every 2-3 minutes, next every hour, next every 6 hours and finally it quit after 3 days. Would do that for every SMS I received. Suddenly after a week I received those same SMS's through Google Hangout (over a week old SMS's I already had received) and than it was over.
I still don't understand why they make Apps that mess up the 'normal' functionality of the phone. It should be able to place and receive calls and SMS's period. Any other functionality is secondary. I've had my phone crash multiple times trying to place a call just because it was doing something else in the background, like google maps and GPS etc... (disclaimer: it's a Samsung mini s2, so pretty old and cheap, but still...)
I had to switch to "Adium" because Hangouts doesn't track all of my messages. There is no "sync" button. And I couldn't find a way to refresh the screen. A co-worker IM'd me a message and when I looked inside of gmail/hangouts on my PC it wasn't there. However, hangouts on my tablet had the message. I guess I could have e-mailed the message to myself. Or I could turn off my tablet so it would stop getting messages. However, if the message ended up on my phone, what am I supposed to do turn off my phone? Why can't their client either have a refresh/sync button or manage multiple Clients?
Call quality was so much better than skype, but it was a real pain to set up and use on android, and i don't even remember how to get to it on chrome.
Sorry google, if you want to compete, you have to bring your A-game, not 5 of your B-games.
-- Another senseless waste of fine bytes.
When I got my Nexus 5 android phone last year the first thing I did was to send SMS messages to my kids to notify them that I had a new phone. Hangouts failed to send them. After several hours of messing around I installed 8SMS with no problems. How can the most basic of apps on a phone be somewhat broken out of the box?
As a general Google rant, I am security conscious and want nothing shared and nothing in the cloud. Automatically Google sucked my contact list out of my phone and stuck it in the cloud. The latest Google Photos app update said something like "click here to store all your photos in the cloud". Grrrr. I felt like I was one errant tap away from losing control of my photos. I nearly went ballistic.
I feel like they want to grab my wallet out of my pocket if I happen to turn in the wrong direction. "Here let us hold on to that for you. If you need some money just let us know and we'll get it out for you. Aren't we nice?".
I love Google's services. I use a nice, albeit older, Play Edition phone running 5.1
Hangouts and Google Voice is an unmitigated mess.
Group text to your GV number? Hope you enjoy 20 different 1:1 conversations in Hangouts -- if you even get the text.
Voicemail notifications magically disabled? Sure. Why not.
Why is that unread? Did it show up on my desktop, or in my Inbox, or in the app? I'm sure I read it ONE of those places.
You can use Hangouts for Google Voice calls without moving SMS to Hangouts. Just keep the SMS messages in Gmail. They appear as emails and you can reply to them as emails. The only trick is that to initiate a new SMS you have to go to https://www.google.com/voice#s... but after that first one, all the rest are treated as emails.
"He took a duck in the face at 250 knots." -- William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
Some idiot just called me up on the phone, what!? Don't they know how to text? OMG!
After much haranguing and cajoling I made the mistake of "upgrading" my Google Voice to Hangouts on my desktop. Now I have to type the phone number each and every time I make a call. There isn't even a redial, the phone dialer box disappears after the call. I had some contacts in old Voice but those didn't get transferred over (hello?) There are instructions for how to go back to the old style, export the contacts and then import them into hangouts, but so far it hasn't worked, Back in the 1970's we had these things called error messages if some action failed. I guess that is old-fashioned now.
Seriously, what is so damn hard about integrating SMS with messaging.
I know there area lot of smart people at Google so the constant trainwreck that is Hangouts is baffling to me.
Never have I encountered a piece of chat software that is so confusing to so many people. I have been using chat software for a long time and am a tech-savvy person but I struggle understanding Hangouts. My relatives, who are scattered all over the world and are quite tech savvy, have been communicating amongst each other online for years with a variety of technologies from ICQ to MSN to Skype to GTalk, all struggle with Hangouts.
I know it's popular to bash UI/UX people on Slashdot and it's something I've never been comfortable with - UI/UX is an important part of software and I've worked with some phenomenal people. But it's like the Hangout team have decided to ignore all the previous years of the chat application design paradigms and have gone out of their way to overcomplicate the interfaces.
I am just perplexed at how hard it is to tell if people are online or offline in the Android app. The default views simply DO NOT SHOW this information - only a "last seen" timer. I assume this is intentional to try to make you just send messages anyway to get you using it like it's an SMS service, but fuck me if you want to actually have a chat with someone knowing whether they're online or away is important.
Some other specific gripes: /hate/ how hard it is to sign out of Hangouts on Android. You have to go into some obscure sub-menu. They clearly want it running all the time.
- I
- On one of the rare occasions I had it running on my phone yesterday, I sent a message to my partner (overseas from me atm) to see if she wanted a chat. My wifi dropped at the same time, and Hangouts reported the message wasn't sent; I had to go out so just left. But it WAS sent, and my partner sat around swearing at me for asking to chat and then vanishing.
- When someone tries to voice call me it seems to ring in Google Talk in Gmail, but does not always answer reliably. I note they are in the process of removing the old Google Talk from Gmail and replacing it with Hangouts.
- When trying to call someone from Google Talk in Gmail it does not seem to reliably call them.
- Message delivery seems flaky - it is not uncommon for me to find out messages never arrived. (Though this seems to be almost exclusively when one end of the conversation is in the Android app).
I would LOVE a good, simple, cross-platform chat application at the moment. My friends and relatives have fragmented across a billion platforms.
More people in the world use online messaging and VoIP apps than use traditional phone service.
You sound like an old, bitter, burned out twat who can't handle change.
..and you sound like a young, bitchy, self important millennial who can't reason without fallacy.
Like Cablevision's Freewheel service, you can get a super cheap Android phone and use Hangouts to turn it into a WiFi only potable phone for free: http://gpinzone.blogspot.com/2015/06/how-to-get-wifi-voice-and-text-phone.html
But the Hangouts program is so bad! Can't even change the ringtone for incoming calls.
Google Voice, the service be it through a web browser, a dedicated app, or an embedded appliance was perfect circa three years ago. Since then, it seems the steering committees within Google have vacillated from not competing with carriers to competing with Skype/Lync, to being a dongle for android, and ultimately being a widget wedged up Hangouts ass in order to entice a migration and integration that doesn't work and sorely lacks the clear headed design objectives of the original. Once upon a time ago, one could manipulate GVoice with standard libraries and Python, one could buy a standard VOIP appliance and use it as a primary phone, and keep a history of every telecommunication with number portability in a web browser! It was awesome! Since then, its become a tepid mess of remembering where not to click to keep from flushing the entire kludge down the urethra of hangouts. Restore 3rd party app support, restore GVoice to the core functionality and greatness it once was, and quit breaking it!
Nothing evolves faster than the word of god in the minds of men who think themselves divinely inspired.
> Every now and then, I'll click on Annoying ads just to thank Google for their apps. That's not the kind of clicks they want to get.
FTFA. "My current device is a Droid Turbo, which replaced my ageing HTC One M8."
Seriously, isn't the M8 still flagship? Kids these days, replacing one year old phones because they are aged?
Oh wait, look who wrote the article, its the staff "Intern Writer". Enjoy your two seconds of internet fame.
Software is bound to have bugs. Hangouts is no different.
But the Hangouts team is willing to fight to not fix their problems. This includes bugs that affect carriers. If you are a carrier and alert them to a problem, they are willing to work HARD to find an excuse as to why they shouldn't have to fix it.
There are a few occasions when I have used SMS. In remote locations, no data connection and intermittent signal that drops a call every couple of seconds it can be useful.
They should have never merged the SMS application with the chat client. It is impractical and illogical. Hangouts was already a serious regression from the simpler, faster and easier to use Talk application.
I use the Hangouts app for SMS because the build-in app is stupid and GO SMS PRO is to themey. Hangouts does what I need for SMS without the dancing colours and whatnot and without the slowness (on large threads) and "scroll back to the bottom on receiving new SMS" bug of the built-in app.
But there's a notification bug. I have a SMS contact on mute (Twitter). When I receive a non-muted SMS or non-muted hangouts message Twitter starts ignoring its mute. I wrote on their forums and basically received a "we're/they're working on it" message from a moderator. I mentioned that I'm annoyed enough that I'm willing to sign an NDA (because it's not open source) and go fix it myself. I basically got a ROTFL-type reply to that suggestion.
"Everybody's naked underneath" -- The Doctor
SMS messages, even though not technically secure, at least only go through the providers.. correct me if I am wrong. Why would someone want to add the Google layer, which ensures they will be scanned by more eyes?
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.