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How does Google voice help iphone 4?

L

Lamarak

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2010
344
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Im not really familiar with Google voice but Im asking what this adds to the iphone 4? Gives you 2 numbers where one you dont use you minutes on the phone?

Probably a dumb question, but Im hoping some nice forum people could enlighten me or a really good link describing how this is a useful function on the Iphone 4. Thanks
 
Lamarak said:
Im not really familiar with Google voice but Im asking what this adds to the iphone 4? Gives you 2 numbers where one you dont use you minutes on the phone?

Probably a dumb question, but Im hoping some nice forum people could enlighten me or a really good link describing how this is a useful function on the Iphone 4. Thanks
Click to expand...

Really the only benefit is that it give you free, unlimited SMS. Voice calls through your Google Voice number will use cell minutes, as it's not a VOIP solution.
 
AT&T plans let you have 5 numbers that you can call that doesn't subtract from your minute plan. If you set your Google Voice number as one of those, you can basically have an unlimited plan.

There are also many people who like the multi-ring feature. You can give away your Google Voice number and have it ring multiple phones, like home phone, work phone, you get the idea. That way, you can answer with the one you want depending on your location. It's also good if you have poor signal in your home or workplace.

Additionally, calling international is much cheaper via Google Voice. This last one is the feature I use most.
 
Roo Zilla said:
AT&T plans let you have 5 numbers that you can call that doesn't subtract from your minute plan. If you set your Google Voice number as one of those, you can basically have an unlimited plan.

There are also many people who like the multi-ring feature. You can give away your Google Voice number and have it ring multiple phones, like home phone, work phone, you get the idea. That way, you can answer with the one you want depending on your location. It's also good if you have poor signal in your home or workplace.

Additionally, calling international is much cheaper via Google Voice. This last one is the feature I use most.
Click to expand...

I don't have that kind of plan unfortunately........I have an older "cingular" plan that is cheaper the the current plans, and includes more minutes. Switching to one of the compatible ATT plans would give me fewer minutes and cost more money.
 
Google voice is designed to give you one number to replace every phone number you currently use. Someone calls your google number and you can have it ring your office phone, your cell, your home phone, etc. You can send SMS messages with this number, make calls with it from your iPhone (there's a very functional web app as well as a real app), and can assign custom voicemail greetings for anyone in your contacts. Now that gmail allows free telephone calling, you can access your contacts on gmail and make calls from your PC with google voice as well.
 
So this application can you let you text and send pictures through the text just as easily as the current iphone 4 set up? Sure wouldnt mind cutting out the unlimited text plan with att. We have three iphones so unlimited text is a need.
 
voicemail transcriptions -- with your existing number. just forward your number to google voice. there's nothing cooler than being in a meeting, getting a voicemail, and reading the message. sure, it's not perfect, but it's close enough to get the gist of it.
 
It's not designed to make a phone better. Just having Google Voice and an iPhone does relatively little. It's designed to make your life easier if you have multiple phones. It's a user-centric service, not a phone-centric service.

I really only use my iPhone so it's not that big a deal to me. But if you deal with several phones then you should look into it.

Lamarak said:
So this application can you let you text and send pictures through the text just as easily as the current iphone 4 set up?
Click to expand...

Yes, but there are many apps that do that. It's not really a unique killer feature of Google Voice. It's the multiple-phone management features that really makes GV special.
 
A much better Visual Voicemail system. You can listen to it from the web. And although not always the greatest, the transcribe feature can be pretty nice.
 
KidStallyn said:
Voice calls through your Google Voice number will use cell minutes, as it's not a VOIP solution.
Click to expand...

Are you sure about this? If i recall correctly, Google voice gives free domestic calls, and the only restriction being that you can be on a phone call maximum of 2 hours per each call.
 
Lamarak said:
So this application can you let you text and send pictures through the text just as easily as the current iphone 4 set up? Sure wouldnt mind cutting out the unlimited text plan with att. We have three iphones so unlimited text is a need.
Click to expand...

Actually, I don't think MMS works with google voice. I think only SMS works, so you won't be able to send pictures/video/audio. Can anyone confirm?
 
aohus said:
Are you sure about this? If i recall correctly, Google voice gives free domestic calls, and the only restriction being that you can be on a phone call maximum of 2 hours per each call.
Click to expand...

Yes, but that's when you use it on your computer through Gmail and not on the iPhone.
 
rrandyy said:
Actually, I don't think MMS works with google voice. I think only SMS works, so you won't be able to send pictures/video/audio. Can anyone confirm?
Click to expand...

Correct. No MMS.


Google Voice itself is not a VOIP solution. It uses your cell minutes.

"Call phone" through GMAIL is a VOIP solution -- it places calls directly over the internet.
 
I think the point is that you should ONLY give out the Google voice number - not both. I guess the pain in the ass is telling all of your current friends to change the number - not add a new one.
 
wacky4alanis said:
I guess the pain in the ass is telling all of your current friends to change the number - not add a new one.
Click to expand...

That's the deal-breaker for me.

If Google ever finds a way to port my AT&T number to themselves and have AT&T give my iPhone a new number, well, then I'd look at Google voice.

But until that happens it's a no-go for me.
 
KidStallyn said:
Really the only benefit is that it give you free, unlimited SMS. Voice calls through your Google Voice number will use cell minutes, as it's not a VOIP solution.
Click to expand...

Not true, you can call for free using google voice through their dialer on the iphone, it uses your data i believe
 
Roo Zilla said:
AT&T plans let you have 5 numbers that you can call that doesn't subtract from your minute plan. If you set your Google Voice number as one of those, you can basically have an unlimited plan.

There are also many people who like the multi-ring feature. You can give away your Google Voice number and have it ring multiple phones, like home phone, work phone, you get the idea. That way, you can answer with the one you want depending on your location. It's also good if you have poor signal in your home or workplace.

Additionally, calling international is much cheaper via Google Voice. This last one is the feature I use most.
Click to expand...

the only problem with that is it doesn't use your google voice to dial out. it will dial set of a few numbers and then dial your outgoing number.

google voice is great its the first thing i set up when i got my driod. you just give out your GV number and have everyone call that number. you can set up dif outgoing voicemails for dif groups and you can block certain callers as long as the number isn't restricted. i had my first telemarketer call me 2 days in row i looked up the number and found people get the call everyday so i said that number was spam and haven't got a call from that number since.
 
frunkis54 said:
the only problem with that is it doesn't use your google voice to dial out. it will dial set of a few numbers and then dial your outgoing number.

google voice is great its the first thing i set up when i got my driod. you just give out your GV number and have everyone call that number. you can set up dif outgoing voicemails for dif groups and you can block certain callers as long as the number isn't restricted. i had my first telearketer call me 2 days in row i looked up the number and found people get the call everyday so i said that number was spam and haven't got a call from that number since.
Click to expand...

Not true if you call your google voice number to initiate your calls. Your phone will think it is connected to your google voice number as the service connects to whatever number you input on the keypad.
 
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