Why Have we heard nothing of Google Voice?

[quester]

Yes, there is a web-version, very nice, but the app itself would be better.

There was a huge flurry of media coverage when the FCC acted in late July/early August '09, but nothing that I've seen since.

Has anything happened?

If not, why hasn't there been any media coverage of this?

 

[alent1234]

nicer way to say it is I have found no use for Google Voice. i tried the web interface one time to be cool and it's slower than dialing from my contacts list. the sound quality was worse since the call now goes through a third party. since i'm on the same account as my inlaws it's going to cost more money to use GV. this is true with anyone with family accounts. my wife and i have 5 phones between us. 2 iphones, 2 blackberries and a home phone and people can reach us just fine. and i don't want people i give my work blackberry number to calling my home phone waking up my son at the wrong time.

 

[IronLogik]

To the original poster: It's a good question, but there really isn't an answer to it.

nicer way to say it is I have found no use for Google Voice. i tried the web interface one time to be cool and it's slower than dialing from my contacts list. the sound quality was worse since the call now goes through a third party. since i'm on the same account as my inlaws it's going to cost more money to use GV. this is true with anyone with family accounts. my wife and i have 5 phones between us. 2 iphones, 2 blackberries and a home phone and people can reach us just fine. and i don't want people i give my work blackberry number to calling my home phone waking up my son at the wrong time.

Just because you haven't found a good use for it doesn't mean no one else has. I use it for text messaging. Sending 2000+ texts a month. I now save myself $20 a month over what I'd pay with AT&T. that's $240 a year I'm saving. Clearly of value to me.

You don't care, that's fine. But others might. Learn to reply when your opinion is actually valuable. In this case it wasn't.

 

[Gokunama]

He said HE has found no use for it, and for some people, that's true. I haven't even looked into Google voice since I get free calls between my wife and I, and almost everyone else calls me.

 

[akm3]

This is the reason I originally Jailbroke my phone - because the GV Mobile app THAT I PAID FOR was removed from the app store and couldn't be updated when google changed their API's. I had no choice but to jailbreak to keep using google voice easily.

However, the web app is very adequate and when the next OS update comes out, I'll probably not jailbreak again as it is 'good enough'.

It is very frustrating though that the official google voice app was rejected ('being studied' my ass)

 

[alent1234]

since i only know 1 person that texts, it's not a problem for me. even at work they got rid of the texting plan on our blackberries years ago to save money. few other people i talked to said their employers did the same

 

[tjp888]

This is the reason I originally Jailbroke my phone - because the GV Mobile app THAT I PAID FOR was removed from the app store and couldn't be updated when google changed their API's. I had no choice but to jailbreak to keep using google voice easily.

However, the web app is very adequate and when the next OS update comes out, I'll probably not jailbreak again as it is 'good enough'.

It is very frustrating though that the official google voice app was rejected ('being studied' my ass)

I purchased GV Mobile also. I was very upset when Apple killed it.
The new GV Web interface does do a very good job though. Thank you Google!

However, Apple's behavior with iPhone apps - which at the very least can be described as erratic, is starting to irritate me. The recent removal of WiFi search tools is the latest example. The one I had purchased was one of the ones removed. I don't believe their explanation. Why were they approved in the first place, if they had an issue with it?

As soon as my contract is up (heck, maybe even sooner) I think I'll be moving over to an Android phone.

 

[dukebound85]

Just because you haven't found a good use for it doesn't mean no one else has. I use it for text messaging. Sending 2000+ texts a month. I now save myself $20 a month over what I'd pay with AT&T. that's $240 a year I'm saving. Clearly of value to me.

You don't care, that's fine. But others might. Learn to reply when your opinion is actually valuable. In this case it wasn't.

The GV Mobile app counts your texts not as part of your text plan?????

since i only know 1 person that texts, it's not a problem for me. even at work they got rid of the texting plan on our blackberries years ago to save money. few other people i talked to said their employers did the same

OK, you dont have a need for GV so why are you participating in this thread? World doesnt revolve around your desires lol

 

[akm3]

The GV Mobile app counts your texts not as part of your text plan?????



OK, you dont have a need for GV so why are you participating in this thread? World doesnt revolve around your desires lol

Google voice can send and receive texts to/from your google voice number.

So, if you have people text your google voice number, and you send from the google voice webapp, as far as AT&T is concerned, you aren't actually using texts.

Downsides include:
If you don't configure Google Voice to forward your SMS messages to your 'real' iPhone number, you won't know when you receive a text. Since they don't allow a native app, Google also can't give you a 'Push' notification.

There are ways around this using desktop apps and Prowl/Growl for example, but they are not elegant.

I hope this was helpful!

Also: Check out Black Swan for another Google Voice web app that may be superior to the Google one, I haven't tried it yet.
http://voicecentral.riverturn.com/

 

[G37dude80]

Or you can have the messages to be sent to your e-mail address, as in like Gmail, and you get an e-mail notification. Free SMS ftw.

 

[jo0]

i personally love that i can have a number besides my main cell to put on websites and give out without concern if im worried im going to be added to a telemarketer db.

the fact that i can block other numbers as spam is incredible. have you ever tried to block a number w/ your cell company? yeah. good luck.

 

[lemonademaker]

i personally love that i can have a number besides my main cell to put on websites and give out without concern if im worried im going to be added to a telemarketer db.

the fact that i can block other numbers as spam is incredible. have you ever tried to block a number w/ your cell company? yeah. good luck.

that's how i use my GV number also, cuts down on calls at home and on cell..... and the blocking number option is sweet!

 

[bozzykid]

Riverturn has released their Black Swan web app for the iPhone for everyone now. It is much better than the Google Voice page for the iPhone since it can be run as an full screen app (and it is much easier to use than the Google Voice page). It still lacks sms notifications (which will be impossible for a web app), but other than that, it runs just like a native app.