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does anyone use google voice? could you tell me if it really works..
yeah it works…what are you using it for?
you can use it for long distance with your computer using a mic and speakers…you just need the google talk voice and video plugin for gmail…or you can route your google talk calls through any phone
I use it all the time. Aside from pretty decent international rates, it is also great if you don’t want to give out your real number. You can route the calls to any phone and you can even change it as often as you want – so if your’e leaving the house you can send the calls to your cell, etc. Additionally, when I get a voicemail I get an email with a transcription of the message and the number that called. It isn’t always perfect but it is a great tool.
Keep in mind that if you are calling internationally, the rates are going to be much more expensive to a cell phone vs landline (like 15 vs 2 cents/min).
Good luck
I’ve been using Google Voice for over 4 years now (back when it was still known as Grand Central), as a business number due to the fact that i’m not always in my office, and i’ve had very little problems with it
i did.. it was fine
aidel_maidel_who_loves_to_eat_knaidel: According to my logic, if you call from Israel to the US there should be a 7 hour delay
aidel_maidel, I didn’t know that was possible!
Google Voice is terrific. I though of an additional way to use it; I wonder if anyone’s tried this. If someone moves to a different city, they can’t usually transfer their phone # to the new city, but I was thinking that they can port their old number to Google Voice and have it ring on their new line.
I transferred my old home phone number to google voice and now receive my home phone calls from google voice over a small Obihai box (one time cost $40) connected to my router and my home phone. It works seamlessly over my home phone and I receive home phone service for free (incoming and outgoing going through google voice.) Google voice only ports numbers from cellphones, so I first ported my number to a tmobile prepaid (cost $6 for a Sim card) and then ported to google voice. The whole setup took me 15 minutes. (Other than buying the Obihai 100 and porting the phone number. The porting took a day.) I also added 911 service for $1.50 a month through Callcentric since google doesn’t support 911. This is optional. And, yes, you can take your phone number with you to anywhere in the world, temporarily or permanently.
I also ported my cell phone number to google voice and now use it over my cell phones data plan (unlimited) so I never use voice minutes. I use tmobiles $30 month unlimited data with 100 voice minutes. (I don’t need the voice minutes since all my voice calls are using data through google voice.) You need an android app called GrooVeIp for this. (Free)
Google Voice is terrific. I though of an additional way to use it; I wonder if anyone’s tried this. If someone moves to a different city, they can’t usually transfer their phone # to the new city, but I was thinking that they can port their old number to Google Voice and have it ring on their new line.
You can’t port a landline number to Google Voice. You first need to port it to a mobile service. The last time I looked into this T-Mobile prepaid was the most cost effective method.
Why can’t you just use the Google Voice app? Does it use minutes?
Google Voice App uses minutes not data. (It dials out in the background.) GrooVeIP uses data. So my setup results in me paying $30 a month for unlimited voice and 4g data. And no cell contract, as the plan is prepaid.
It dials out in the background.
What does that mean?
The official GV android app dials out to a special google phone number anytime you make an outgoing call with it. Then it connects your call to the number you are calling. For incoming calls, google voice calls your cell number, and the app recognizes it as a GV call and handles it.
Essentially, whatever the precise technical background processes, the bottom line is that the gv app uses cell minutes.
It uses minutes, it doesn’t go over the data plan. It calls a number that GV converts to your number. (The number GV dials makes money for Google, you’ll notice that it’s in “weird” area codes that costs the carriers more money to terminate to.)
What I did with my plan was use Google Voice, IPKAll and Callwithus to have a 100% totally free system. IPKall gives you a free telephone number, Callwithus gives you a SIP plan, you add your IPKall nummber to GV, have your phone connect to Callwithus and use GV+ to make your outgoing calls for free calls to the US, from anywhere in the world.
Truthsharer, is there a way to use this combination through my home phone? Currently, I use Google voice as a calling card, so calling E.Y. or England, for example, are very cheap, but not free. Can I use your combination to make it totally free, or can I only do that with an Android?
truth: Your setup is unnecessarily complex and adds additional layers that can serve as points of failure. I described my totally free setup above that only involves Google Voice directly interfacing with an ATA by Obihai that allows free incoming and outgoing phone service with your existing phone number. (And I advised how you can use Callcentric for an optional 911 service. They also happen to offer free phone numbers and free SIP.)
Daas: I told you in my first comment above how to get 100% free home (or business) “normal” phone service courtesy of Google Voice.
You need a connection to the Internet.
Another option is getting an Israeli number to ring your home phone and then it would be free for Israel to call you.
Check out http://www.misparchinam.com/ Mispar Chinam I’m not sure how it works or if there will be ads but you get an Israeli number to your US phone.
bentch, this is on my cellphone. I needed a way to make outgoing calls, and using GV+, it creates an incoming call from an outgoing call, and IPKall gives me the number to plug into GV.
From my computer, I can just go to gmail and put in a number and dial.
Oh, right, the Obihai box. I should look into that, but I probably don’t make enough international calls to even justify the $40 cost.
Yeah, considering that Israel Landlines are 2 cents a minute, you can’t really beat that.
Daas: Doesn’t eliminating your monthly home telephone bill justify a one time $40 cost?
I checked Amazon; it says US and Canada is free, and international calls have “great rates”. I have that already (well, not Canada, but my landline has that anyhow, and I won’t give up the reliability it offers) by using GV as a calling card, so what’s the ma’aleh?
truth: How does your setup reduce your cellphone bill?
I have an Ooma already, (as a second line) but as I wrote (as you were posting), I can’t afford the instability of VOIP as an only line.
Daas: You get free US AND Canada already by using google voice as your calling card. And you get the same international rates whether you use it as a calling card or directly through an Obihai device. The benefit is being able to dump your local phone company, while getting the same service.
Personally, I think the reliability of a cellphone replaces the need for a landline. In fact, many households are already cellphone only (not even using a VoIP or google voice type setup.) Landlines are a 100+ year relic, with the technology little changed from the days of Alexander Graham Bell. And Verizon and AT&T are slowly but surely phasing out their investments in landlines letting them languish while just milking them for whatever they can without investing in upgrading or even basic maintenance in them.
Ok, I didn’t pay attention, since I have Canada included in my landline anyhow. Cell only wouldn’t work for my household. For some, I know, it does. Had I knwn about Obihai, maybe I wouldn’t have bought Ooma, but that’s water under the bridge now.
I’ve used it over home wifi to cut back on my minutes when I was nearing the limit, but I really set it up so that when I went to Israel I was able to make free calls to the US using WiFI.
Daas: What would you lose with having cellphones + VoIP (which acts like a landline) but no actual landline?
1) VoIP cuts out on me too often
2) Not compatible with my home security system
truth: It still seems unnecessarily complex. Why not simply use GrooVeIP android app to make all your incoming and outgoing calls via Google Voice over WiFi?
I also want incoming calls.
GrooVeIP does both incoming and outgoing over data (wifi or 3/4g) through GV. And it even can work through your cellphone dialer, so it is entirely seamless.
i recently purchased a new blackberry but when i searched for the GV app it didnt show up & it also didnt show up in My World. Does anybody know what happened to the app??
I have tried both google voice and Skype to call landlines and in my opinion Skype is much better value for money and also has much clearer lines.
cb1
i usedto have it on my Blackberry and then my BB got erased, and when i tried looking for it again i couldnt find it. I did some research and aparently google has gotten rid of the gvoice app for blackberry and now is only availible on Andriod and maybe iPhone (they did it as a way to get people to switch to andriod
anyway,i found that someone posted a link to it on crackberry . com (the famous BB blog ) but when i tried downloading it it didnt work. other people there claimed it worked on their BB so try it.
go to crackberry . com and search for the conversation about gvoice
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