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Iphone and Google Voice Today

D

dasouthprince9

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 16, 2011
9
0
Hello Everyone, I am new to the forum. The reason I joined is because I once had an iphone but had to sell it and leave AT&T for financial reasons. I have had two androids before. One when they first came out and one now. I am still unimpressive and will be returning back to the iphone soon.

My question is, if anyone can help me at all, is if Google Voice works well with iphone. I do a lot of text messaging and I recently saw that Google Voice now works with iphone. I know before, it was kind of buggy but they have made some improvements in now you can have a dedicated number for phone re-direction and receiving texts. My co worker has an android and he said his works fine. I seriously want to know if Google Voice sends and receives texts messages consistently with no problems. I asked a friend who had a blackberry and was on AT&T. He used google voice for texts and said he was still getting charged. I do not know how long that was ago so they could have improved. Can someone help me out?
 
It's literally the worst app I've ever used on my iPhone. That being said, I still use it b/c it's a great service.
 
GV text are free unless you turn on the notification so it texts your your actual cell phone to let you know you have a text.
 
frunkis54 said:
GV text are free unless you turn on the notification so it texts your your actual cell phone to let you know you have a text.
Click to expand...

Oh ok, so that would probably explain why my friend was receiving bills for text messages. I tell if I am right or wrong. Someone texts your Google Voice number, if you have the notification in Google voice turned off you will not receive a text to your phone that also charges you for text messages on your bill?
 
try to find Talkatone app, free.. uses it to call with my ipod, which means no cost except the wi-fi connection/internet voip (w/ google voice account)..
 
rookiezzz said:
try to find Talkatone app, free.. uses it to call with my ipod, which means no cost except the wi-fi connection/internet voip (w/ google voice account)..
Click to expand...

Thats cool and all but if it doesn't work over 3G, I'm not interested. Only looking to get this question completely answered about Google Voice.
 
dasouthprince9 said:
Hello Everyone, I am new to the forum. The reason I joined is because I once had an iphone but had to sell it and leave AT&T for financial reasons. I have had two androids before. One when they first came out and one now. I am still unimpressive and will be returning back to the iphone soon.

My question is, if anyone can help me at all, is if Google Voice works well with iphone. I do a lot of text messaging and I recently saw that Google Voice now works with iphone. I know before, it was kind of buggy but they have made some improvements in now you can have a dedicated number for phone re-direction and receiving texts. My co worker has an android and he said his works fine. I seriously want to know if Google Voice sends and receives texts messages consistently with no problems. I asked a friend who had a blackberry and was on AT&T. He used google voice for texts and said he was still getting charged. I do not know how long that was ago so they could have improved. Can someone help me out?
Click to expand...
Yes, it's tons better than it used to be. Several months ago the app would freeze constantly, but now it pretty much works 99% of the time without a problem.

He was getting charged bc he forwarded google voice texts to the phone. If you are on data and don't have a texting plan, there is no need to forward the texts to the phone....bc you can reply from the GV app on your data plan or on wifi and it is free.

It is interesting how i am on the gophone prepaid plan and i can receive unlimited incoming texts to my phone that are forwarded from GV and it doesn't cost me a thing. Yet, someone who has a contract can get charged for texting. As soon as i reply though, i will get charged $2 usage for that day though.

If you have the settings correct, you will not be charged for texting etc. Like someone else mentioned. Talkatone is another great app to use for calling on wifi/3g. I have never really used it on 3g, but on 4G it works great, just like on wifi. I can get by without having to make calls using my gophone so it doesn't cost me money at all.
 
rmhop81 said:
Yes, it's tons better than it used to be. Several months ago the app would freeze constantly, but now it pretty much works 99% of the time without a problem.

He was getting charged bc he forwarded google voice texts to the phone. If you are on data and don't have a texting plan, there is no need to forward the texts to the phone....bc you can reply from the GV app on your data plan or on wifi and it is free.

It is interesting how i am on the gophone prepaid plan and i can receive unlimited incoming texts to my phone that are forwarded from GV and it doesn't cost me a thing. Yet, someone who has a contract can get charged for texting. As soon as i reply though, i will get charged $2 usage for that day though.

If you have the settings correct, you will not be charged for texting etc. Like someone else mentioned. Talkatone is another great app to use for calling on wifi/3g. I have never really used it on 3g, but on 4G it works great, just like on wifi. I can get by without having to make calls using my gophone so it doesn't cost me money at all.
Click to expand...

So if you don't have texts on that phone, will you be able notified by the google voice app when you have texts?
 
I use GV on my iphone exclusively for texting and calling.

The GV official App is OK, but not great.

However, if you jailbreak, there is a pair of apps in cydia that fully integrate GV functionality - GV Phone Extension and GV SMS Extension. They are $3 each both with trials.

-You can send and receive texts using the normal texting app (or Bite SMS)
-You can make calls using the stock phone app and go thru your GV number
-You can set exceptions for certain numbers NOT to use GV (i use it when calling my wife to take advangage of free m2m calling)
-Call logs show the actual called number not the GV gateway
-voice mail forwarding can be turned on and bypass ATT voicemail for all calls

I highly reccomend it.
 
dasouthprince9 said:
So if you don't have texts on that phone, will you be able notified by the google voice app when you have texts?
Click to expand...

Receive text messages on this phone (mobile phones only)

IF you check that box....text messages will be forwarded from google voice to that phone. So if you have pay per text, you will be charged. If you uncheck that box, the only way you will see a text is through the google voice app. of course you'd have to be connected to data or wifi to get it.
 
rmhop81 said:
Receive text messages on this phone (mobile phones only)

IF you check that box....text messages will be forwarded from google voice to that phone. So if you have pay per text, you will be charged. If you uncheck that box, the only way you will see a text is through the google voice app. of course you'd have to be connected to data or wifi to get it.
Click to expand...

So the only way you know if you get a text using Google Voice is if you open the app? Also, I'm assuming that when iOS5 is released, that will change with notifications?
 
dasouthprince9 said:
So the only way you know if you get a text using Google Voice is if you open the app? Also, I'm assuming that when iOS5 is released, that will change with notifications?
Click to expand...

Notifications have been supported since iOS3. However, for the GV app in particular, notifications are not 100% reliable. GV SMS extension is far more reliable.

You can also have GV forward your texts as a email, that's another workaround for the notifications.
 
dasouthprince9 said:
So the only way you know if you get a text using Google Voice is if you open the app? Also, I'm assuming that when iOS5 is released, that will change with notifications?
Click to expand...

GV app has push notifications so it's pretty reliable. If you are that concerned about getting a text message you also have the option to forward texts to email...which will also send a push notification to your phone.

When the GV app wasn't reliable that's how i usually replied to text messages anyway.

I have GV forward all texts to my phone so when i'm not around wifi since i don't have data on my iphone i still get the text message. Since i'm on gophone plan as long as i don't reply the text message is free. So if it's not important i just wait until i am by wifi or connect up with my mifi device.
 
rookiezzz said:
try to find Talkatone app, free.. uses it to call with my ipod, which means no cost except the wi-fi connection/internet voip (w/ google voice account)..
Click to expand...

How the heck do you answer incoming calls with Talkatone when your phone is locked?
 
Google voice is great for when i want to prank my friends with a different number, but I really have no use for it. I can see the benefit though...

That said, the official GV app isn't amazing, but if you don't like it, there are plenty of 3rd party apps that will run Google Voice.
 
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