Google Voice

[brooklyn2710]

So I just finish watching the videos explaining Google Voice, and I think I get but what I was wondering do you get rid of your mobile number when you get Google Voice or do you keep both numbers and your phone rings whether someone call you on either number? Also, does anyone know if you can cancel the Google voice number at anytime? Because I was thinking of using it as a temporary work number so that way customers could call my Google Voice number instead of me giving out my cell number.

 

[Slipshod]

do you get rid of your mobile number when you get Google Voice or do you keep both numbers and your phone rings whether someone call you on either number?

The later. Normally you will add all your other numbers to GV so it can ring them all when somebody calls your GV number. You can attach schedules to them as well, so it only rings your work number during work hours (for example).

People can still call you on either number (cell or GV), and you can still have your voicemail forwarded to GV for both numbers so both go into the same voicemail system (and you get visual voicemail using the Google Voice app). You can also set seperate voicemail greetings, so the default one could be for your business, and for contacts defined in GV (which is same as Gmail, which is same as Android phone book) you could have a group with a more personal greeting for family and/or friends.

Also, does anyone know if you can cancel the Google voice number at anytime? Because I was thinking of using it as a temporary work number so that way customers could call my Google Voice number instead of me giving out my cell number.

You can stop using it and undo your voicemail forwarding easily. I don't think you can technically "cancel" it though - so if somebody calls it they will still go to voicemail.

 

[brooklyn2710]

Let me just double check this, so I can have my cell number. Then set up a brand new Google Voice number. This way, i get all the features of Google Voice and receive calls from both my cell number and Google Voice number right?

 

[Slipshod]

Let me just double check this, so I can have my cell number. Then set up a brand new Google Voice number. This way, i get all the features of Google Voice and receive calls from both my cell number and Google Voice number right?

Mostly. You won't get ALL the features of google voice if they call your cellphone directly, since most of those features depend on you using Google's voice servers to work their magic. You can get a single unified voicemail box for both numbers, but you won't be able to use any of the in-call GV features like free conferencing, call record, call presentation, call screening, call transfer, etc...

 

[kristoff125]

Just make sure to add the correct GV numbers to your friends and family.

 

[Ronus]

GV is horrible. The quality of your phone call goes down too much. I would only give it to a few people and try it out for yourself before telling everyone that your number has changed.

Not to mention, that if you are a verizon customer, that GV texts and calls are no longer in Network minutes and you could have a large bill if your account is not set up correctly.

 

[Slipshod]

GV is horrible. The quality of your phone call goes down too much. I would only give it to a few people and try it out for yourself before telling everyone that your number has changed.

Not to mention, that if you are a verizon customer, that GV texts and calls are no longer in Network minutes and you could have a large bill if your account is not set up correctly.

For the record, neither my wife, myself, nor anyone we talk to have any complaints about the call quality, and we're full-time inbound and outbound GV users now. We both consider call-quality to be great (unlike the speech recognition accuracy in GV voicemail).

Our minutes used has gone down since all of our outgoing calls are now free (GV dialout number is in our faves list), and the other 9 slots in our favs covers our top talkers easily. This has also allowed us to drop our landline down to the bare minimum (metered local, no long-distance) and only use it for incoming calls now since we can do all outgoing through the Android GV app.

No need for an SMS option on our Verizon plan anymore (more $$ saved) since we're using GV's SMS for texts, and it's just as easy to send a pic with gmail as it is to use MMS.

Lastly, I'm about 2/3rd done with an ASE python script on the phones which will automatically enable/disable ringing to specific phones based on my location or other condition. So I can have my home phone only ring via GV when I'm actually home, or I can stop my mobile phone from ringing when I start my SIP client on the phone. And anytime you want to transfer a phonecall from mobile to landline you just hit "*" in-call, and your other lines will ring. Pickup and you're no longer using incoming minutes.

GV is awesome.

 

[vash429]

I know that verizons visual voice mail has amonthly charge, but is google voice free as visual voicemail ?

 

[Slipshod]

I know that verizons visual voice mail has amonthly charge, but is google voice free as visual voicemail ?

Google Voice is free, and the Google Voice App in the app-store will give you visual voicemail. You can use your existing phone number and just get the voicemail features of GV if you don't want to invest too much time into it or want to keep your mobile-to-mobile minutes working. I started that way since I just wanted visual voicemail.

 

[cabotcat]

GV is horrible. The quality of your phone call goes down too much. I would only give it to a few people and try it out for yourself before telling everyone that your number has changed.

Not to mention, that if you are a verizon customer, that GV texts and calls are no longer in Network minutes and you could have a large bill if your account is not set up correctly.

For the record, neither my wife, myself, nor anyone we talk to have any complaints about the call quality, and we're full-time inbound and outbound GV users now. We both consider call-quality to be great (unlike the speech recognition accuracy in GV voicemail).

Our minutes used has gone down since all of our outgoing calls are now free (GV dialout number is in our faves list), and the other 9 slots in our favs covers our top talkers easily. This has also allowed us to drop our landline down to the bare minimum (metered local, no long-distance) and only use it for incoming calls now since we can do all outgoing through the Android GV app.

No need for an SMS option on our Verizon plan anymore (more $$ saved) since we're using GV's SMS for texts, and it's just as easy to send a pic with gmail as it is to use MMS.

Lastly, I'm about 2/3rd done with an ASE python script on the phones which will automatically enable/disable ringing to specific phones based on my location or other condition. So I can have my home phone only ring via GV when I'm actually home, or I can stop my mobile phone from ringing when I start my SIP client on the phone. And anytime you want to transfer a phonecall from mobile to landline you just hit "*" in-call, and your other lines will ring. Pickup and you're no longer using incoming minutes.

GV is awesome.

Slipshod thanks so much for this post. It had not occurred to me to add the GV number to my friends and families list. One question if I may...... if the GV number is in the friends and families list do the incoming calls made to the GV number count against the Verizon minutes?

Thanks again for the info.

 

[Slipshod]

GV is horrible. The quality of your phone call goes down too much. I would only give it to a few people and try it out for yourself before telling everyone that your number has changed.

Not to mention, that if you are a verizon customer, that GV texts and calls are no longer in Network minutes and you could have a large bill if your account is not set up correctly.

For the record, neither my wife, myself, nor anyone we talk to have any complaints about the call quality, and we're full-time inbound and outbound GV users now. We both consider call-quality to be great (unlike the speech recognition accuracy in GV voicemail).

Our minutes used has gone down since all of our outgoing calls are now free (GV dialout number is in our faves list), and the other 9 slots in our favs covers our top talkers easily. This has also allowed us to drop our landline down to the bare minimum (metered local, no long-distance) and only use it for incoming calls now since we can do all outgoing through the Android GV app.

No need for an SMS option on our Verizon plan anymore (more $$ saved) since we're using GV's SMS for texts, and it's just as easy to send a pic with gmail as it is to use MMS.

Lastly, I'm about 2/3rd done with an ASE python script on the phones which will automatically enable/disable ringing to specific phones based on my location or other condition. So I can have my home phone only ring via GV when I'm actually home, or I can stop my mobile phone from ringing when I start my SIP client on the phone. And anytime you want to transfer a phonecall from mobile to landline you just hit "*" in-call, and your other lines will ring. Pickup and you're no longer using incoming minutes.

GV is awesome.

Slipshod thanks so much for this post. It had not occurred to me to add the GV number to my friends and families list. One question if I may...... if the GV number is in the friends and families list do the incoming calls made to the GV number count against the Verizon minutes?

Thanks again for the info.

It depends on how you have your GV caller-ID setup, since the favs uses caller-ID to figure out how to charge. Soooo....

If you have GV configured to pass-through caller-ID of the original caller (so you can see who is calling you), then you are charged Verizon minutes when they call you since Verizon sees the caller-ID as being the persons real number.

If you have GV configured to not pass-through caller-ID, and add your normal GV number to your favs, all incoming calls are free. Unfortunately you will lose all caller-ID this way as all incoming calls will look like they are your GV number calling you. You can use call-presentation, but I find that clumsy.

Also, remember that the outgoing number that the official GV app in Android uses to dial-out can change on you (and it is NOT the same as your GV number!). I believe it is related to relatively large geographic areas, but be sure to memorize it and keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't change on you and cause you a surprise bill. I live in the SF Bay Area, and it's been the same in the South and East Bay, across about 60-70 miles. I've heard it's different elsewhere, but haven't traveled since I went all-in on GV.

 

[cabotcat]

For the record, neither my wife, myself, nor anyone we talk to have any complaints about the call quality, and we're full-time inbound and outbound GV users now. We both consider call-quality to be great (unlike the speech recognition accuracy in GV voicemail).

Our minutes used has gone down since all of our outgoing calls are now free (GV dialout number is in our faves list), and the other 9 slots in our favs covers our top talkers easily. This has also allowed us to drop our landline down to the bare minimum (metered local, no long-distance) and only use it for incoming calls now since we can do all outgoing through the Android GV app.

No need for an SMS option on our Verizon plan anymore (more $$ saved) since we're using GV's SMS for texts, and it's just as easy to send a pic with gmail as it is to use MMS.

Lastly, I'm about 2/3rd done with an ASE python script on the phones which will automatically enable/disable ringing to specific phones based on my location or other condition. So I can have my home phone only ring via GV when I'm actually home, or I can stop my mobile phone from ringing when I start my SIP client on the phone. And anytime you want to transfer a phonecall from mobile to landline you just hit "*" in-call, and your other lines will ring. Pickup and you're no longer using incoming minutes.

GV is awesome.

Slipshod thanks so much for this post. It had not occurred to me to add the GV number to my friends and families list. One question if I may...... if the GV number is in the friends and families list do the incoming calls made to the GV number count against the Verizon minutes?

Thanks again for the info.

It depends on how you have your GV caller-ID setup, since the favs uses caller-ID to figure out how to charge. Soooo....

If you have GV configured to pass-through caller-ID of the original caller (so you can see who is calling you), then you are charged Verizon minutes when they call you since Verizon sees the caller-ID as being the persons real number.

If you have GV configured to not pass-through caller-ID, and add your normal GV number to your favs, all incoming calls are free. Unfortunately you will lose all caller-ID this way as all incoming calls will look like they are your GV number calling you. You can use call-presentation, but I find that clumsy.

Also, remember that the outgoing number that the official GV app in Android uses to dial-out can change on you (and it is NOT the same as your GV number!). I believe it is related to relatively large geographic areas, but be sure to memorize it and keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't change on you and cause you a surprise bill. I live in the SF Bay Area, and it's been the same in the South and East Bay, across about 60-70 miles. I've heard it's different elsewhere, but haven't traveled since I went all-in on GV.

Excellent information. Thank you so much Slipshod. Maybe the mods could consider posting a sticky on Google Voice and adding the information you have presented in this thread.

 

[cabotcat]

For the record, neither my wife, myself, nor anyone we talk to have any complaints about the call quality, and we're full-time inbound and outbound GV users now. We both consider call-quality to be great (unlike the speech recognition accuracy in GV voicemail).

Our minutes used has gone down since all of our outgoing calls are now free (GV dialout number is in our faves list), and the other 9 slots in our favs covers our top talkers easily. This has also allowed us to drop our landline down to the bare minimum (metered local, no long-distance) and only use it for incoming calls now since we can do all outgoing through the Android GV app.

No need for an SMS option on our Verizon plan anymore (more $$ saved) since we're using GV's SMS for texts, and it's just as easy to send a pic with gmail as it is to use MMS.

Lastly, I'm about 2/3rd done with an ASE python script on the phones which will automatically enable/disable ringing to specific phones based on my location or other condition. So I can have my home phone only ring via GV when I'm actually home, or I can stop my mobile phone from ringing when I start my SIP client on the phone. And anytime you want to transfer a phonecall from mobile to landline you just hit "*" in-call, and your other lines will ring. Pickup and you're no longer using incoming minutes.

GV is awesome.

Slipshod thanks so much for this post. It had not occurred to me to add the GV number to my friends and families list. One question if I may...... if the GV number is in the friends and families list do the incoming calls made to the GV number count against the Verizon minutes?

Thanks again for the info.

It depends on how you have your GV caller-ID setup, since the favs uses caller-ID to figure out how to charge. Soooo....

If you have GV configured to pass-through caller-ID of the original caller (so you can see who is calling you), then you are charged Verizon minutes when they call you since Verizon sees the caller-ID as being the persons real number.

If you have GV configured to not pass-through caller-ID, and add your normal GV number to your favs, all incoming calls are free. Unfortunately you will lose all caller-ID this way as all incoming calls will look like they are your GV number calling you. You can use call-presentation, but I find that clumsy.

Also, remember that the outgoing number that the official GV app in Android uses to dial-out can change on you (and it is NOT the same as your GV number!). I believe it is related to relatively large geographic areas, but be sure to memorize it and keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't change on you and cause you a surprise bill. I live in the SF Bay Area, and it's been the same in the South and East Bay, across about 60-70 miles. I've heard it's different elsewhere, but haven't traveled since I went all-in on GV.

Thinking about this a little more, should the outgoing GV number also be added to the favs list?

 

[Slipshod]

Excellent information. Thank you so much Slipshod. Maybe the mods could consider posting a sticky on Google Voice and adding the information you have presented in this thread.

No problem, I'm glad I could help. I did a bunch of research when I set off down the GV path and pieced all this together from several different sources, so it probably sounds more impressive than it is.

 

[Slipshod]

Thinking about this a little more, should the outgoing GV number also be added to the favs list?

Add the outgoing line so you have free minutes when you call out to anybody. For incoming, decide if you like caller-ID or free incoming minutes more. Personally, I like caller-ID more.

We have a family plan w/ 2 line and 10 shared favs. We added each others GV number, and the outgoing line to our favs, and use the other 7 numbers for our top talkes. Now we have unlimited calls to each other, outgoing, and from 7 people we talk to the most. And I just use the "*" transfer when I take an incoming call on the cell and am near one of my landlines to stop using incoming minutes.