Battery Life with Regular Calling vs. Google Voice - Verizon Droid Charge

I am curious about the battery usage when calling with 3g/4g vs. the normal way. I noticed in my battery usage that calling took up a significant portion of my battery (I live in a not great signal area), and was wondering if using google voice instead would save me battery? I am going to try it anyway, but I was hoping to find out if anyone had any experience / advice

mrnatas19 said:
I am curious about the battery usage when calling with 3g/4g vs. the normal way. I noticed in my battery usage that calling took up a significant portion of my battery (I live in a not great signal area), and was wondering if using google voice instead would save me battery? I am going to try it anyway, but I was hoping to find out if anyone had any experience / advice
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I use google voice and it's no different. Just makes calls to a google number and routes it to who you are calling with your google voice number as the caller id. Still using the same stuff as regular calls.

Google Voice isn't VoIP, even though it's commonly refereed too when VoIP is brought up. In fact, Google Voice would theoretically make it worse because it adds a bit of overhead before placing a traditional call.

Related

[APP][HACK] Skype .APK hacked for U.S. 3G calls

The links are in the post.
http://goo.gl/GWlr
Cool. With the way cell phone plans work these days, I have no idea why anyone would want to do this. I mean, who wants to trade minutes for data?
Speak for yourself. I have unlimited data on t-mobile, so this would be perfect.
Well, I got to thinking about it and "unlimited data" is only one requirement for this to make any sense, the other two being:
1) youre not signed up for Google Voice
2) its a short, international phone call
crachel said:
Well, I got to thinking about it and "unlimited data" is only one requirement for this to make any sense, the other two being:
1) youre not signed up for Google Voice
2) its a short, international phone call
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This app is working great over 3G. I have a T-mobile unlimited data plan and making international calls on the road works great. If they aren't online (free) then it is .02 a minute with Skype. The voice quality is the BEST I've EVER heard with a phone IP connection.
Edit: I have also used this version of Skype with a good Edge connection and the voice quality is still pretty good.
I have an ungodly amount of minutes, but that's not why I wanted this - the only place where I normally have WiFi is at home - thus, having a version to let me make Skype calls over 3G lets me use it anywhere, as opposed to only being able to use the app to call my Skype contacts while at home (where I have a perfectly good netbook for Skype).
Does this use data while running in the background (ie not on a call)?
The old skype app (WinMo) would suck the battery back then, eg 5 hours of skype in the background (with no calls being made and the phone being on standby) and the battery would go from 100% to 10%.
Hope this is more of a "push" approach to skype?
Can some one post up a new link or pm me this file...
nexusdue said:
Does this use data while running in the background (ie not on a call)?
The old skype app (WinMo) would suck the battery back then, eg 5 hours of skype in the background (with no calls being made and the phone being on standby) and the battery would go from 100% to 10%.
Hope this is more of a "push" approach to skype?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, Skype will suck your battery if you use it online all of the time. If you can't plug in your phone during the day then I wouldn't leave Skype online. I use Skype to make international calls and close it down when I don't need it.
dailydR1ver said:
Can some one post up a new link or pm me this file...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=800834
original thread as far as i can recall.
Is anyone updating this somewhere as Skype updates?

mobile data vs wifi for google voice calls?

i had my thunderbolt set to wifi which i hardly ever do, left my house, and made a phone call using google voice while going for a walk. after i hung up, i noticed i had never turned mobile data back on. so, how did google voice handle my call half a mile from home without the verizon network? did it somehow switch seamlessly from wifi to mobile data without me agreeing to turn mobile data on?, just curious.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
wrb123 said:
i had my thunderbolt set to wifi which i hardly ever do, left my house, and made a phone call using google voice while going for a walk. after i hung up, i noticed i had never turned mobile data back on. so, how did google voice handle my call half a mile from home without the verizon network? did it somehow switch seamlessly from wifi to mobile data without me agreeing to turn mobile data on?, just curious.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google voice isnt VOIP... its using your cell signal, not your data. It does use a few packets to initiate the call over a data network, but after that, its using your minutes and your cell connection. The only real benefit for your average user is free text messaging (no mms) and visual voicemail for free. Its the same as using your cellphone otherwise, with far worse call quality.
if it's using cell connection, why would call quality be any different? I have only recently started using voice to dial out on calls and haven't really noticed a difference.
johnchad14 said:
if it's using cell connection, why would call quality be any different? I have only recently started using voice to dial out on calls and haven't really noticed a difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no difference. Whether you are on WiFi or not, it still uses regular Verizon cell network as though you dialed the call normally. It still uses your minutes and doesn't use data.
Sent from my ThunderBolt using Tapatalk
johnchad14 said:
if it's using cell connection, why would call quality be any different?
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Click to collapse
Because you're going through more hops, which means more transcoding and latency.
hmm seems like the quality is fine to me... its not like im calling into a recording studio to lay down the vocals for my next track anyway.
the real question is more about how google voice can just turn my mobile data on without asking me when i turned it off, whereas something like google maps has to prompt me every time to turn gps on. it would be nice if google maps could just remember my preference "yes, its okay to enable gps when i launch maps/navigation or click to show my location" rather than being sent to the location settings from maps every time
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
I'd heard about lower quality on voice calls but just haven't experienced it. Is the call still connecting through a third party between callers these days? My understanding was callers are connected by the service but once connection is established they are directly connected. Would be curious to know the technical details
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App
You mean you are getting free text messages with GV? It doesnt count towards your text mesaging plan
Most of you are misunderstanding the GV service. Quality is the same, because you your "voice" is not being re-encoded, altered, or even rerouted in any way. All the Google voice service does is accept/make calls then hand them off. Just like calling a secretary and them transferring you to another office. Your GV number is the secretary, when someone calls it it informs all your phones that someone wants to talk to you and when you pick one up it "transfers" the call to you on that phone. Just as if they directly called you. Absolutely no difference. This is not voip, like skype, vonage, etc.
trikotret said:
You mean you are getting free text messages with GV? It doesnt count towards your text mesaging plan
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yep, but google voice can't handle picture messaging. i just told everyone, hey... can't get picture messages anymore. post stuff on facebook or email it to me. awesome to be able to save $10 or so a month doing this on verizon. on sprint they don't let you decline text messaging on a smartphone plan that im aware of, so it doesn't matter on sprint. very happy with verizon on this issue!
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
TsaiKimon said:
Most of you are misunderstanding the GV service. Quality is the same, because you your "voice" is not being re-encoded, altered, or even rerouted in any way. All the Google voice service does is accept/make calls then hand them off. Just like calling a secretary and them transferring you to another office. Your GV number is the secretary, when someone calls it it informs all your phones that someone wants to talk to you and when you pick one up it "transfers" the call to you on that phone. Just as if they directly called you. Absolutely no difference. This is not voip, like skype, vonage, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the explanation - good to know.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
TsaiKimon said:
Most of you are misunderstanding the GV service.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Especially you.
When a secretary transfers a call, it's to another DN on the same PBX, the connection is simply rerouted within the same system. If they "hand you off to another office," then they are adding a hop, and possibly transcoding, unless the PBXs are in a common VoIP domain, or in very specific cases, are coordinated to do anti-tromboning (e.g. all calls enter the main office, which then trunks them to remote sites - if a call is then transferred back to the main site or to another office, anti-tromboning may be used).
With GV, when you call out, your phone calls a special number belonging to GV (you can see this if you have detailed billing). From that point, the number you dialed is in turn connected. GV can't reach into the carrier's system and reroute the call there. So, it's another hop of latency and transcoding. It wouldn't surprise me if Google had SIP trunks, since they tend to be cheaper at scale.
It's similar in reverse, someone calls your GV number, they're connected to a Google site, which in turn forwards the call to your cell number (or whatever number you define). Again, another hop.
the call quality is fine
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
My call quality actually went down after starting to use GV on my Thunderbolt. I have a severe 2-3 second lag with almost all my calls I start. I have no problem when receiving a call, there's no lag. Anyone else in the same boat?
Sent from my Thunderbolt.
yes to lag when starting calls, but that is due to the connection method certainly. Has to connect to voice, then voice connects both parties.
But haven't noticed any call quality degradation from switching (yet?)

[Q] Wifi Voip w/o cell service

Hi to make a long story short me and my now ex broke up but she turned off my cell phone the same day, Bi***, but i still have my phone and i had previusly set up a google voice account with my old cell number and i can make phone calls but i need to be able to recieve call as well but cant so any suggestions that are either free or really cheap would be great thanks for reading
T-mobile has some low cost plans, and currently offering a free SIM kit. You will need to unlock the phone but that's easy to do... Several threads here on how to do it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda premium
You can receive calls on your google voice number if you have Talkatone or GrooveIP....both very easy to set up. A more complicated option is Sipdroid and similar programs
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2
electricpete1 said:
You can receive calls on your google voice number if you have Talkatone or GrooveIP....both very easy to set up. A more complicated option is Sipdroid and similar programs
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Click to collapse
Alright i have set up a pbxes.org and sipdroid account i am able to send and recieve calls but after a minite or so i cant use my default dialer anymore just says "to make a call turn off airplane mode" did that and now it says "network unavailable" i want to use the default dialer any suggestions
For those of you who want the best quality out of your $30 smartphone plan, I made a 12-part video tutorial showing how to do it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9DzN1Pu6-Q&list=PLE_de-PBwrTSUMm-Y48aiOOHt_YyT69t0
It's much better than GrooveIP, Vonage, Talkatone, Pbxes.org, and everything else, especially those with the "one big green button" solution.
This method gives you HD Voice (G.722 codec), bettery battery life, and much better options for logging/blocking/recording. You can even set up hold music. Yup, I said hold music.
It used to be difficult to set up until I made it as clear as the nose on your face in the video tutorial (with actual commentary instead of techno music).
Spread the word if you do it and it works out for you. I believe everyone deserves high quality and limitless VoIP WiFi/4g calling.
If someone is using Google voice to connect it seems like the easier solution may actually be better in this case because you can't get that higher quality audio on Google voice. Every person I have phone discussions with utilizes phone numbers vice PBX accounts. I guess the people here aren't average. However, I wouldn't even think about going down a route that would take hours unless I could use the resulting features often. If I am wrong about being able to use the higher quality audio with Google voice, please correct me.
It would be nice to have an app that used Google voice for phone calls and SMS but also had call recording ability. I live in a state where I don't have to tell the other party I am recording them (for the purposes of legal record) unless I am being polite.

T-Mobile Wifi Calling Alternatives?

This has been a work in progress over on the N4 forums, with little progress. I have zero cell reception in certain parts of my home with T-Mobile USA. What can I use as an alternative? Without using a different phone number (i.e Google Voice). Does Hangouts send SMS over Wifi or Cellular? What are you guys using?
Have you ever called tmobile about this. They have given people cell boosters for similar problems
Sent from my GT-N5110 using xda app-developers app
I'm having the same issue with T-Mobile. I have full LTE signal all around my city but the second I walk into my apartment I have absolutely no service. It's quite frustrating and I'm trying to find an alternative. I tried calling T-Mobile about it but they said their cell boosters are "only for stand alone homes and won't work in an apartment complex", which seems ridiculous but whatever.
I'd be willing to switch to Google Voice but I haven't been able to confirm whether or not Google Voice makes/receives calls and texts via Wifi, or if I'll need a separate app to make it work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The typical method these days is Google Voice (since that's not specifically an SIP/VoIP thing itself) + either GrooveIP or Talkatone (which ARE those things) and you can then do SIP/VoIP calling from the Google Voice number, but as noted in the T-Mobile $30 plan thread multiple times (and other places as well) Google is removing the ability for third party apps to interact with GV at the end of April 2014 so that's when we (people that GV + third-party apps) will be forced to find other solutions to make SIP/VoIP calls).
And the other thing is that T-Mobile Wi-Fi calling setup uses minutes from your service plan - most people don't know this and it's not a big hassle on a 1500 minute or unlimited calling plan, but for those of us with the $30 plan it's basically pointless to use it when other alternatives (such as those I just described, at least for another 5 months or so) exist.
Skype is another option but you could be looking at some money involved based on what/who/where you're calling, and then there's stuff like Vonage if you use that service but that's an expenditure as well.
Google Voice for the Home via ObiTalk
sn0warmy said:
I'm having the same issue with T-Mobile. I have full LTE signal all around my city but the second I walk into my apartment I have absolutely no service. It's quite frustrating and I'm trying to find an alternative. I tried calling T-Mobile about it but they said their cell boosters are "only for stand alone homes and won't work in an apartment complex", which seems ridiculous but whatever.
I'd be willing to switch to Google Voice but I haven't been able to confirm whether or not Google Voice makes/receives calls and texts via Wifi, or if I'll need a separate app to make it work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just FYI; I told AT&T to go fly a kite about 8 months ago for my home phone and have been using Google Voice on my home line as well as my cell phone for FREE. Yes; that's FREE incoming and outgoing calls.
I am using a small VoIP phone adapter found on Amazon called OBi202 from ObiTalk.com
Costs about $80 bucks and there is even a wifi adapter for $25 if you can't plug it in via Cat5 to your internet connection at home.
Anyway; you configure the phone adapter to use Google Voice and voila! You can connect 2 separate lines. I have mine and my wife's hooked up to cordless phones so I now have free home phone service.
Down side? The caller ID is a numer and not a name. I read about services available for a subscription that will give you the Name on Caller ID but if this is so important to you I guess you are OK with paying $60+ for phone service. (Yea right)
When you get a call it will ring simultaneously on your home phone and your mobile.
Free service; I LIKE THAT. And if you get bad reception at home from your mobile the nice part is that this could solve your issue because you give out your Google Voice number out and the phone will automatically start be ringing on your cordless when you are home.
Hope this helps you!!:good:
---------- Post added at 08:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:50 PM ----------
sn0warmy said:
I'm having the same issue with T-Mobile. I have full LTE signal all around my city but the second I walk into my apartment I have absolutely no service. It's quite frustrating and I'm trying to find an alternative. I tried calling T-Mobile about it but they said their cell boosters are "only for stand alone homes and won't work in an apartment complex", which seems ridiculous but whatever.
I'd be willing to switch to Google Voice but I haven't been able to confirm whether or not Google Voice makes/receives calls and texts via Wifi, or if I'll need a separate app to make it work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh; to answer your question I sent myself and back texts using Google Voice over Wifi only and it worked. I have called with it via Wifi also when traveling.
So it does.
You can use MagicJack. They also have a android app. I heard it pretty good, however to use the android app, you need to register your phone. Once you register your phone, you can't unregister it. This is info I pulled about a year ago. Look into it though.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Port your number to Google Voice.
Get a VoIP account at a provider that has good latency for your location (I use voip.ms, costs $0.014/min outgoing, ~$0.01/min incoming).
Set up CSIPSimple on your phone (use g729a for good quality on slower connections, PCMU on faster connections; be prepared to fiddle with settings to get it down right)
Make calls using CSIPSimple from your voip.ms account
Set up Google Voice to ring both your voip.ms number when you receive calls, as well as your T-Mobile number (in case you don't have WiFi or data when the call comes through).

VOIP on the Nexus 5

My fiancée and I got ourselves a pair of Nexus 5's a couple of weeks ago, switched from Verizon to the T-Mo $30 100/Unlimited/5GB(Unlimited) plan and are now happily saving over $100 a month in the process. Yay us!
However, I've been struggling with VOIP with varying degrees of success. I've spent a considerable amount of time researching and configuring and tweaking, and I'd like to share my findings, as well as get some feedback on some things I may have missed.
One of the first things I tried was the Google Voice/PBXes/CSipSimple method, which produced terrible call quality. Everything from echo to background noise. No matter what I did (and believe me, I tried everything I could find) the call quality was just terrible. Changing the mic source, enabling mode audio API, changing the SIP audio mode, changing codecs, nothing really helped. Battery life was great, but the call quality was pretty much unusable. I could hear myself echoing, the other party could hear their own voice echoing, and/or there'd be too much background noise, or I'd be too quiet, etc.
Next, I tried Talkatone (paid for premium). Connection problems galore! I'd have several "lag fests" over WiFi (never tried it on LTE) even when I was sitting right at the router. Everything would cut out for about 30-45 seconds and then resume as if nothing happened, and this occurred 2-3 times over the course of a 10-15 minute call. Yes, I ruled out a connection/router issue. Battery life was "OK" but it wasn't as good as it was with CSipSimple.
I then tried GrooveIP (paid). Lots of echo here. Again, no setting or combination of settings really seemed to get rid of it. Tried as I might, the echo was always there. Battery life was on par with Talkatone.
Next, I decided I'd go a different direction and tried Skype. The voice quality was much improved, with no echo, but complaints of background noise, especially while on speakerphone. This has been passable, though not "ideal" (I know, VOIP isn't perfect). The big issue with Skype has been the absurd battery drain. A 30 minute call drained my battery by almost 20% and Skype was topping the charts by a long shot on the battery usage.
I know there are other options out there such as Viber, but I've not seen a whole lot out of them in terms of reviews, etc. I may just end up trying Viber and seeing how it pans out, but the options are starting to run out.
I know part of the problem is the same one the Nexus 4 had with the microphone(s) but, I'd like to think I just might be overlooking something. If anyone feels they've "solved the problem" please share your settings, as I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels as though they're banging their head against a wall here.
Fenuxx said:
I know there are other options out there such as Viber, but I've not seen a whole lot out of them in terms of reviews, etc. I may just end up trying Viber and seeing how it pans out, but the options are starting to run out.
I know part of the problem is the same one the Nexus 4 had with the microphone(s) but, I'd like to think I just might be overlooking something. If anyone feels they've "solved the problem" please share your settings, as I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels as though they're banging their head against a wall here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Viber works well for me and I only hear a slight echo if I'm talking with Nexus 4 users. Give it a shot. Tango might be worth a try, too. Good luck.
Well, I believe Csipsimple is the best voip client available. So, you'll most likely want to go back to your first solution, but replace pbxes with Callcentric, voip.ms or another voip provider. I've tried everything you did as well (plus a few more options) and with the exception of Skype, found the quality to be unacceptable. What I'm suggesting won't be free, but the cost is extremely low. Actually, voip.ms could be a very good solution for you. You would establish and fund one "account", but set up separate "sub-accounts" for yourself and your fiance. If you wanted to use GV exclusively, you could then purchase a couple of DIDs and set up GV to forward to them. I use an app on my phone called Groove Forwarder that changes my GV forwarding settings based on my data connection. If I'm on LTE, etc..., it forwards to my T-Mobile number. When I'm connected to Wi-Fi though, it switches to my Flowroute (another voip provider) number. Also fwiw, you can use voip over LTE if you want. Being in a moving vehicle set up that way will cause issues however.
adrman said:
Well, I believe Csipsimple is the best voip client available. So, you'll most likely want to go back to your first solution, but replace pbxes with Callcentric, voip.ms or another voip provider. I've tried everything you did as well (plus a few more options) and with the exception of Skype, found the quality to be unacceptable. What I'm suggesting won't be free, but the cost is extremely low. Actually, voip.ms could be a very good solution for you. You would establish and fund one "account", but set up separate "sub-accounts" for yourself and your fiance. If you wanted to use GV exclusively, you could then purchase a couple of DIDs and set up GV to forward to them. I use an app on my phone called Groove Forwarder that changes my GV forwarding settings based on my data connection. If I'm on LTE, etc..., it forwards to my T-Mobile number. When I'm connected to Wi-Fi though, it switches to my Flowroute (another voip provider) number. Also fwiw, you can use voip over LTE if you want. Being in a moving vehicle set up that way will cause issues however.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I also tried the Callcentric+PBXes route for the iLBC codec, which didn't seem to help. I'm not entirely convinced it's the PBX provider that's at fault, as I don't have these weird audio issues with CSipSimple+PBXes/Callcentric on my "home phone" (separate Google Voice account) which is an old DROID Incredible 2. Voice quality there is fine.
I did look into voip.ms, but when I signed up (late at night), they forced a "manual authentication" on me (why, I don't know) and I needed to contact support. I tried logging in the following morning, only to be greeted with a message about my IP address not being whiteflagged and not being authorized to access the account. Being that my IP address is dynamic, I don't think I want to constantly fight that battle about "approving" my IP address whenever it changes.
Create a ticket with voip.ms support to inquire. I've only good things to say about their response times and help.
Does anyone have bluetooth headsets working with csipsimple? On my nexus 5 I've yet to find a sip phone that works correctly with a headset.
Fenuxx said:
I then tried GrooveIP (paid). Lots of echo here. Again, no setting or combination of settings really seemed to get rid of it. Tried as I might, the echo was always there. Battery life was on par with Talkatone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
groove and google voice gave me no echo when calling a landline from my wifi connection. i think this has to be your internet access that would be messing this up. . .or maybe it's just bad for voip to voip calls
I can personally attest to voip.ms + csipsimple + g729 codec ($10 dollars in the playstore) reliability as a voip setup for my Nexus 5. My set up is basically that GV forwards to my voip.ms DID which rings directly to my Nexus 5's csipsimple app. In the event that im not registered in csipsimple (e.g. lose connection, servers go down, etc) I have failover set up w/ voip.ms to ring to my real tmobile phone number. I have zero issues with call quality or echo and I have had full conversations with people on the phone even while driving. I also used this guys tip when first setting up, these may or may not change a thing but Ive had my csipsimple configured with these settings since day 1 also.
1. Go to settings
2. Click the menu button -> Expert Mode
3. Go to “media” -> select echo mode and choose WebRTC (probably already chosen)
4. In “media” go to “Audio troubleshooting” -> “Mic source” -> Voice call
5. in “Audio troubleshooting” -> “Audio implementation” -> Java
I use flowroute + csimpsimple (G729). Call quality is excellent and low latency on WiFi and LTE, and not bad over HSPA/HSPA+.
My main issue at the moment is bluetooth. I cannot get it to work with the bluetooth in my car (only bluetooth I have). I can get incoming audio OK, but it appears to be using the phone microphone for outgoing audio instead of the car microphone and it's very garbled and noisy.
There was a software issue in 4.2 regarding inline mic gain, 4.2.2 fixed it. GroovIP free worked fine for me after the update. There is only a few months left of google voice as they are shutting it down on May 15, 2014.
I have been using Viber for over two years. Works perfectly fine. Try it.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

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