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[GUIDE] Google Voice for Noobs

I was helping someone get started with Google Voice in a thread, and thought a little tutorial might help people out, so I wrote one. I'd like input if you guys think I got something wrong, or left something out. I hope this can help someone.
The pdf has been updated as of 2/16/2010 with more info:
http://i0v.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Google-Voice-for-Noobs.pdf
But I figured some people might like plain text, so I'll paste it too.
I probably won't update the plain text here because it will just be getting longer and longer
(that is, unless someone requests it)
Google Voice for Noobs
Transitioning to Google Voice, on a Sprint HTC Hero
First Revision 2/14/10
What Is Google Voice?
First off, I think it helps to think of Google Voice like a switch box of some sort. You can feed telephone calls in and feed them back out, in whatever direction you’d like. The original intended functionality of GV was to allow you give people one number (your GV number) and then it would ring all of your phones when someone calls that number.
Now this might be helpful for some people, but I know the majority of people here probably don’t have more than one phone. But this setup can still be useful for people who want to use their Google Voice number as the number they give out to people. This setup is really the easiest, because once you’ve entered your cell phone in Google Voice under Settings > Phones, you’re pretty much done. The other advantage to this route is that you can have GV ask callers for their name before it rings your phone (call screening), and some other cool features. If you still want to use your Sprint phone number and just use GV for voicemail, see the next section.
Note: Now when you now first set up Google Voice, it asks if you want to set it up as strictly voicemail and then steps you through steps similar to the following section. It then gives you a more limited feature set for just the options that apply to when you’re using it as voicemail. If that’s all you want to do, then that might be the route to go. If at some point, you want to use a scenario similar to the one above Go to Settings >’Phones’ tab > Get a Google number (thanks to Jon at Hebb Networks for clarifying this)
Google Voice as Voicemail
(This is basically an explanation of what Google walks you through when you go to Settings > “Activate Google voicemail for this phone” on the GV website)
Note that sometime around November 2009, Sprint decided to make CONDITIONAL call forwarding free, so we’re going to configure it like this:
In this situation what you’ll do is dial *285555555555 (replace the 5’s with your GV number) and then press talk. You should hear some beeps to let you know everything is working alright. Then you can hang up. (To undo this feature dial *38)
Next, you want to let GV know that these calls that are being forwarded should go to voicemail. You can do this by going into your settings page in Google Voice on your computer, and clicking “Activate Google voicemail for this phone”
Another thing to note, is that there is a big difference between CONDITIONAL and UNCONDITIONAL call forwarding. CONDITIONAL forwards a call after some (you guessed it) conditions are met - i.e. Busy, or no answer. You can read more about CONDITIONAL call forwarding here: http://bit.ly/9KvT2L
On the other hand, UNCONDITIONAL call forwarding takes all calls to your sprint number, and forwards them ALL to a different number without ever ringing your cell phone. This is not typically an option that anyone would want to use, and Sprint still charges 20 cents/minute for every call that uses this. Read more here: http://bit.ly/apyfAs
Accessing Google Voice from your Hero
Now on your CDMA Hero, you’re definitely going to want to download the Google Voice app from the Market. This will currently do two functions.
1. Allow you to see and play all of your voicemail.
2. Route your outgoing calls back through Google Voice, if you want to. (This makes more sense, I think, if you’re giving out your Google Voice number to people, because then your calls will be all forwarded through GV, both incoming and outgoing. I don’t give out my GV number, so I have mine set to only make outgoing calls through GV for international calls.)
Another option is to call Google Voice from your cell phone, just like the old days with Sprint Voicemail. Be sure to go Settings > Call Settings > Voicemail and then type in your GV number. Then when you hold 1 from the dial pad, you’ll call GV and be able to access it that way too.
Yet another option is to just visit the Google Voice Mobile Page in the browser.
Notification Options
With a fresh setup of Google Voice Voicemail, you’ll probably quickly notice that you’ll bombarded with email and SMS notifications about a new message. You can turn these off, and if you’re using the Android app, you’ll probably want to. On the Google Voice site, visit Settings > Voicemail & SMS > Voicemail Notifications to turn these on or off.

I have one question about using GV. I have free mobile to mobile calling. When someone calls my GV number, which is then forwarded to my cell phone, is this still a mobile to mobile call, or will I be charged?

wjtrawick said:
I have one question about using GV. I have free mobile to mobile calling. When someone calls my GV number, which is then forwarded to my cell phone, is this still a mobile to mobile call, or will I be charged?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just did a reverse telephone lookup, and it lists my google voice number type as a landline. So, no, I don't believe it counts as a mobile number.
Edit: Just checked my Sprint bill. I've got Any Mobile, Anytime. It is charged as a land line.
(On a side note, we just switched to the free mobile to mobile a few months ago, damn I love it: "Your account used 9,346 minutes of Any Mobile, Anytime(sm) calling last month.")

According to GV surport forum. If somebody(cellphone) calls ur GV number and transfer to ur sprint number. It should be counted as Mobile to Mobile. However, if you called somebody else through ur GV number, it will be conted as you call a landline.
link is here.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/voice/thread?tid=75630cc990ea5c98&hl=en

laufine said:
According to GV surport forum. If somebody(cellphone) calls ur GV number and transfer to ur sprint number. It should be counted as Mobile to Mobile. However, if you called somebody else through ur GV number, it will be conted as you call a landline.
link is here.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/voice/thread?tid=75630cc990ea5c98&hl=en
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yupp, thats how it is, I have the bills to prove it. Also, for the person calling you it counts as a landline call for them, so if they are on Sprint it is not using mobile2mobile.
If there was a way to convince google to have gvoice lines as mobile lines it would be set....to bad...

Interestingly, the Voice app for Android doesn't do push notifications of new VMs. I get my email notifications long before the Voice app picks the VMs up. (I think it's set to check every 5 minutes?)
Any ideas on that one?

Is_907 said:
Interestingly, the Voice app for Android doesn't do push notifications of new VMs. I get my email notifications long before the Voice app picks the VMs up. (I think it's set to check every 5 minutes?)
Any ideas on that one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I go to settings > refresh and notification > refresh inbox,, and there are options there for refresh rate. 5 minutes is the lowest setting. I heard somewhere that there is a 3rd party app that checks more frequently, but I haven't tried it. I wouldn't want to drain my battery with an interval shorter than 5 minutes. Maybe you'd be better off making a gmail label to sort the notifications if the delay is a problem.

I've just been setting GV to send me SMS notifications, and then when I have a VM, I just hit refresh, and look at it. I don't want it constantly refreshing because I hardly get VM's.

Is_907 said:
Interestingly, the Voice app for Android doesn't do push notifications of new VMs. I get my email notifications long before the Voice app picks the VMs up. (I think it's set to check every 5 minutes?)
Any ideas on that one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the one thing that keeps me from becoming a heavy Google Voice user. I read on the Google support forums that they're working on push notifications but they said it was difficult and didn't have an ETA.
I don't know how it would be more difficult than Gmail.

Hey, thanks a lot for this guide! I've had "setting up google voicemail" on my to-do list for a while now, and your easy to understand guide motivated me to get it set up. Thanks a lot!
Just wanted to add a little something (feel free to put it in your guide if you want, to avoid questions in the forum later) for people who are on Cricket Wireless...
If you try to set this up for Cricket, the code you dial to activate Google Voicemail is slightly different.
For Cricket, dial *74xxxxxxx.
If you get an error after dialing it, something like "Cricket does not currently offer this service", then the problem isn't that Cricket doesn't offer it, but that your account does not have Call Forwarding enabled.
So, if you use Cricket and you get an error after dialing the code, go to your My Account on the Cricket Website and double check/add the Call Forwarding feature to your account. Once you do this, the code will work and GVoicemail can be activated.
Thanks again!

raynda said:
Hey, thanks a lot for this guide! I've had "setting up google voicemail" on my to-do list for a while now, and your easy to understand guide motivated me to get it set up. Thanks a lot!
Just wanted to add a little something (feel free to put it in your guide if you want, to avoid questions in the forum later) for people who are on Cricket Wireless...
If you try to set this up for Cricket, the code you dial to activate Google Voicemail is slightly different.
For Cricket, dial *74xxxxxxx.
If you get an error after dialing it, something like "Cricket does not currently offer this service", then the problem isn't that Cricket doesn't offer it, but that your account does not have Call Forwarding enabled.
So, if you use Cricket and you get an error after dialing the code, go to your My Account on the Cricket Website and double check/add the Call Forwarding feature to your account. Once you do this, the code will work and GVoicemail can be activated.
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent, and thanks; I'm glad this is being helpful to some people. I will definitely add that to at least the PDF guide today after I finish some school work. I look at this guide as a work in progress, and I'd like to eventually make it a fairly comprehensive users-guide to GV.
My one comment is:
*28 on Sprint forwards BOTH busy line, and no answer. From reading the cricket site, it seems that you'd both need to do *73 and *74 codes, so that when you're busy, it also sends calls to GV. On sprint you can do this too, as it would be the same as doing *28. Actually when I first activated mine, I had to do it that way because the exchange I was using was having some problems with the *28. Basically *28 is just a shortcut (on sprint, not cricket) for forwarding both.
So I'll add this explanation to the guide too. (along with undo codes) I totally forgot I had that problem. But I'm pretty sure you want to also do *73.
--------------------
To the people with billing comments:
So basicially everyone is saying:
1) All GV calls out are charged as calls to a land line. (which I have experienced too)
2) All GV incoming calls are charged as if you were receiving the call directly. (i.e. [Mobile call -> GV -> your phone] is charged as mobile... OR ... [landline call -> GV -> your phone] is charged as landline]
Am I right here? If so, I'll add this in today, too.

what am i missing?
* I have google voice setup correctly
* I have the application from the market installed
* I am receiving notifications in the form of text, and through the notification bar in android.
What I cannot figure out is how to opened the darn program when i want to get back into google voice to look at the messages in the inbox. i can get in when a message icon is in the tray (i just click on it and google voice comes up), but later on when i think "what was that message again?" and I go to go back to the program I cannot find a way to get in.
* There is no program in the "all programs" page (accessed by the arrow)
* There is no widget (other than the one to change how i want google voice to make calls for me)
What am I missing? I cannot figure out how to get into the program.
I could go to the mobile site, but that just seems silly when i know that the program is on my phone. I just can't find an icon to access it.
Please tell me I'm blind, and missing something obvious.
-AndyS-

realmrealm said:
* I have google voice setup correctly
* I have the application from the market installed
* I am receiving notifications in the form of text, and through the notification bar in android.
What I cannot figure out is how to opened the darn program when i want to get back into google voice to look at the messages in the inbox. i can get in when a message icon is in the tray (i just click on it and google voice comes up), but later on when i think "what was that message again?" and I go to go back to the program I cannot find a way to get in.
* There is no program in the "all programs" page (accessed by the arrow)
* There is no widget (other than the one to change how i want google voice to make calls for me)
What am I missing? I cannot figure out how to get into the program.
I could go to the mobile site, but that just seems silly when i know that the program is on my phone. I just can't find an icon to access it.
Please tell me I'm blind, and missing something obvious.
-AndyS-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can only guess that you're looking for an icon that says "Google Voice" when actually the icon just says "Voice"

yikes!
@thematrixkid17 - see, I asked for something obvious and you gave it to me
I'm really pretty embarrassed considering the time that I was trying to figure this out, and that it was in front of me the whole time.
Thanks for the quick reply.
-AndyS-

laufine said:
According to GV surport forum. If somebody(cellphone) calls ur GV number and transfer to ur sprint number. It should be counted as Mobile to Mobile. However, if you called somebody else through ur GV number, it will be conted as you call a landline.
link is here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sprint has a feature called "Sprint to Home" for $5 /month. If you add that to your plan ALL calls going to and from google voice are free. I use my phone ALL the time and only manage to rack up a 20-30 minutes a month .

realmrealm said:
@thematrixkid17 - see, I asked for something obvious and you gave it to me
I'm really pretty embarrassed considering the time that I was trying to figure this out, and that it was in front of me the whole time.
Thanks for the quick reply.
-AndyS-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem. I knew that was probably your problem, because I had to do a double-take the first time I installed it too. Voice sounds really generic and has a pretty generic looking icon, so its not hard to overlook. I should add a picture of the icon to my guide

biggoan said:
Sprint has a feature called "Sprint to Home" for $5 /month. If you add that to your plan ALL calls going to and from google voice are free. I use my phone ALL the time and only manage to rack up a 20-30 minutes a month .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've heard about that. So you use google voice to dial to everybody? Cause I have 300 mins/month(Family plan,1500mins, 5ppl), if next month I use more than 300 mins, I'll call sprint to add this service.

anyone happen to happen an invite
[email protected]
so could i use this as my primary voicemail with my sprint number or would i have use the gv one? which i would see no point in if you don't use the gv number? thanks to whoever can clear this up for me

ko0pa11 said:
anyone happen to happen an invite
[email protected]
so could i use this as my primary voicemail with my sprint number or would i have use the gv one? which i would see no point in if you don't use the gv number? thanks to whoever can clear this up for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you can use it as primary voicemail, while still using your Sprint number. That's how I primarily use mine, since I'm on a 1500 minute 5 line family plan with free mobile to mobile any network, and we barely use 200 anytime minutes COMBINED. So it doesn't make sense for me to use GV for calls, when everyone already has my Sprint number. just follow the section in the guide "google voice as voicemail" or the setup instructions on GV.
What is nice about GV for voicemail is that you get visual voicemail via the GV android app, access to voicemail on your pc, its easy to archive messages, custom greetings for different groups of callers, and a bunch of other stuff. Voicemail transcription isn't great yet, but makes it nice to get an idea of what callers are saying if you can't listen (class, meeting, etc)
Invites are pretty sparse. I only ever got three, which I've used for my close friends, or i'd hand them out.
Again, i'll be updating the guide semi-daily based on questions in this thread

laufine said:
I've heard about that. So you use google voice to dial to everybody? Cause I have 300 mins/month(Family plan,1500mins, 5ppl), if next month I use more than 300 mins, I'll call sprint to add this service.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A lot of the family plans now have the free mobile to mobile any network, so if you mainly make mobile calls, you might take a look at that as an option too. (sorry if I keep bringing this up, but it did really do a killing on my plan; my sister used almost 9000 free minutes last month because of this)

Google Voice 2 Sprint VVM

So I am on 2.2 RC1 and I pushed the sprint core apk to my system/app folder. I was able to get it to work and setup my personal message. In the settings --> call settings I changed it from Google voice to my carrier. I also changed the number to my personal cell phone number. But for some reason when leaving a message it still goes to GV. I even uninstalled Google voice from my phone and left a message same thing. I restarted my phone several times and even clear data from settings, same thing. I also reinstalled the rom in its entirety and still no go. All messages go to GV I always used GV as my voicemail preference but want to give sprint vvm a try. My question to everyone is...
What am I doing wrong?
oops put this under themes not questions, sorry.

Did you have your voice mail set up to go to google voice before (ie *28xxx-xxx-xxxx)? If so, dial *38 on your phone.

login to google account and remove cell # from voice account. fyi,vvm works well by flashing vvm.zip...

Ok, calling *38 worked but my question is what did that do? It just made a noise and hung up on me. If I ever switch back to GV do I have to do the same thing? Thanks for your help I would have never figured it out.

Tibedabeeto said:
Ok, calling *38 worked but my question is what did that do? It just made a noise and hung up on me. If I ever switch back to GV do I have to do the same thing? Thanks for your help I would have never figured it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Changing the voicemail settings in your phone back from google voice to my carrier only changes how your phone is setup. Dialing the *38 reroutes the actual voicemail back to your normal sprint mail box. When you dialed that long ass number to setup google voice the first time, *38 just undoes that.
I had the same problem when I went back to VVM last week.

I just installed Google Voice. I'd not called my own phone to go to voice mail before, so I don't know if this is AOSP or google voice, but when I call it rings forever, then it actually calls my phone again, then many rings later it goes to google voice.
All totaled a person has to wait like 18 rings to get to my voicemail. Did I set something up wrong? Is it just not working? Is there a setting somewhere to "retry" before going to voicemail?
Edit: Nevermind, I finally found the golden set of search terms that lead to an answer. In case anyone else needs help: Apparently the way it works is that no answer on your phone forwards to Google Voice. The default settings are basically "forward to my other phones" (Presumably if you miss a call on your cell it could ring your work phone, or whatever.) however it doesn't exclude the originating phone, essentially forwarding to itself. In the advanced settings of the phone there's a "Go straight to voicemail" option.

Tibedabeeto said:
So I am on 2.2 RC1 and I pushed the sprint core apk to my system/app folder. I was able to get it to work and setup my personal message. In the settings --> call settings I changed it from Google voice to my carrier. I also changed the number to my personal cell phone number. But for some reason when leaving a message it still goes to GV. I even uninstalled Google voice from my phone and left a message same thing. I restarted my phone several times and even clear data from settings, same thing. I also reinstalled the rom in its entirety and still no go. All messages go to GV I always used GV as my voicemail preference but want to give sprint vvm a try. My question to everyone is...
What am I doing wrong?
oops put this under themes not questions, sorry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
put the phone down and log into google voice on your computer.. you can enable and disable from there..

thank you for telling me about the google voice settings on my computer, I tried installing the apk, reinstalling the rom, reinstalling the zip,*38, etc.,. Nothing worked until I went to my google voice page and went to the settings menu and uninstalled it thank you, you've saved me alot of grief.

Google Voice

I'm running CM 6.1 so I don't have Sprint VMM and I setup Google Voice using my cell number and went through all the steps to activate Google Voice, I then created a greeting but whenever I call my number and let it go to the voicemail all I get is "Could not complete your call, please try again." The phone I am calling my cell with is not broken or anything like that so I know it's something to do with Google Voice. What am I missing?

What color did you want it? I'm having trouble understanding what you are saying here.
Will probably be better understood here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=650

Basically, I setup Google Voice on my cell phone but when I call my cell phone it doesn't go to any voicemail it just says "Could not complete your call, please try again."

coppertop4646 said:
Basically, I setup Google Voice on my cell phone but when I call my cell phone it doesn't go to any voicemail it just says "Could not complete your call, please try again."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What maybe the issue and what was in my case, go to settings call settings and then voice mail number, mine was like *38 but after I put in my number everything fine.
Sent from my HERO200 using Tapatalk

You also need to go to the voice homepage on your pc and activate it there for your phone.
Sent from my CDMA Hero. I got some hot Froyo-on-Hero action here!

On google.com/voice my phone number is listed under "Mobile" and it says it is activated. My number is also correct in the google voice application on my phone but when I call my phone and let it continually ring, it still acts like I have never setup a voicemail and just says "Could not complete your call, please try again."

Need some more information.
What is your carrier?
You do have Google Voice set up to send all calls to your cell phone, right?
Did you go to voicemail settings in your phone and change your voicemail provider?

Yes it says my voicemail provider is google voice but I think I found the problem. Under Call Settings > Voicemail Settings it says Voicemail Number 9165381466 so I press it to change it and it says "To set up Google Voice as the voicemail provider on your phone you need to enter a special provisioning code." So I dial the code it tells me to dial and everytime I call the provisioning code it connects for 2 seconds then disconnects.
Sprint is my carrier.
And I just want Google Voice to receive the voicemails that people would normally leave on my phone. Basically I just want it to act like Sprint VVM. And I'm running CM6.1 if you're wondering why I just don't use Sprint VVM in the first place. If I can't get voice to work I guess I'll just flash VVM.

coppertop4646 said:
So I dial the code it tells me to dial and everytime I call the provisioning code it connects for 2 seconds then disconnects.
Sprint is my carrier.
And I just want Google Voice to receive the voicemails that people would normally leave on my phone. Basically I just want it to act like Sprint VVM. And I'm running CM6.1 if you're wondering why I just don't use Sprint VVM in the first place. If I can't get voice to work I guess I'll just flash VVM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I set mine up to work like that. You only have to call the "provisioning code" once. It is just like forwarding, it sets it up to redirect calls to google voice if you don't answer. I have Sprint, also, and loved the VVM, but google voice works great.

I know how to fix this I wrote a post on this about a year ago. Sprint voicemail is terrible. This same thing happened to me and i didnt realize people couldnt leave me voicemails for about 2 months lol. Forget the provisioning code it means nothing after you do this. Listen close because heres what you do....
1. Go to google.com/voice on your computer and at the top right it says settings.
2. Highlight settings then click the drop down arrow and select voice settings.
3. The 1st tab says phone/your google voice number, select that and change your google voicemail number.
4. Once you change it, you have to delete google voice from your phone then reinstall it to finish this. Go thru process as normal when setting it up.
5. Now the final step, go to settings on your phone, then CALL settings then make sure voicemail service is set to GOOGLE VOICE, and right under that theres a tab in CALL settings that says VOICEMAIL SETTINGS. Select that and you will see VOICEMAIL NUMBER, press that once and you will get a pop up box that says a bunch of junk just hit ok and open google voice once and it should be done.
Hope this helps you.

Ok that worked...thank you. One last question, where do I go to disable the emails that Google Voice sends me everytime I get a voicemail?
Edit: Nevermind I found it

coppertop4646 said:
Ok that worked...thank you. One last question, where do I go to disable the emails that Google Voice sends me everytime I get a voicemail?
Edit: Nevermind I found it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad that helped man
Sent from my HERO200 using Tapatalk

how do i setup google voice?

so, i registered for google voice in the past and im thinking about actually using it now for the new thunderbolt since i wanted a new number anyway. has anyone used google voice on verizon before? what should i keep in mind when making the decision or not? does it ring a ton of times before going to voicemail like it did on sprint? have there ever been any issues with verizon and google voice or don't they mind if you use it? thanks.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

I've had it for years. No issues on VZW. Just like your normal number. Voicemail is transcribed for you, though it's not very accurate. You can usually figure out what they're trying to say. If not, you can play the message and listen to it.

I've been very happy with Google Voice on my Android phones. The voice-to-text isn't as good as some other systems I've seen, but it works well enough.
Download the app and give it a try. I think when I set my up on the TB, it gave an error complaining about being able to configure VZW. That was a new error I hadn't seen on my Inc. You may need to manually configure the "no-answer" call forwarding to your GV number. The setup should configure your phone to dial your GV number when you hit the 1 button for "Voicemail".
Give it a try!

Google Voice is the greatest thing since sliced bread, especially if you have multiple phones...one number to rule them all!
I'm testing the theory right now, but on T-Mobile people with NOT-unlimited plans were assigning their GV number as one of their Fave 5 (Friends & Family on VZW) and then telling the phone to make and receive all calls via GV, in effect giving them unlimited minutes. Does anyone know for sure if this works on VZW or not? I've set mine up that way (900 minute plan), and my used minutes seem to suggest that it will, but there's no minutes being charged to F&F on my online billing page yet.

The only thing holding me back is the apparent lack of mms. Not that many people send me picture messages, but id like for them to at least get a rejection message saying its not possible on ny device so they know it wasnt received
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

Google Voice Setup for Voicemail only
I had a problem setting up voicemail for my verizon number to work with google voice and thought I would share how i corrected it.
I installed GV app and it said my carrier does not support automatic config.
I could view old messages I had but all new incoming calls went to my verizon VM
In order to route calls to GV VM I had to
Dial *71xxx-xxx-xxxx where xxx is your google voice number and hit call
it will beep a few time then hang up
next
Dial *90xxx-xxx-xxxx where xxx is your google voice number and hit call
it will beep a few time then hang up
next
Dial *92xxx-xxx-xxxx where xxx is your google voice number and hit call
it will beep a few time then hang up
next
This successfully routed all incoming calls to my google voice.
To deactivate call being routed you must do this
*73 call
*900 call
*920 call
Hope this helps someone else.

wrb123 said:
The only thing holding me back is the apparent lack of mms. Not that many people send me picture messages, but id like for them to at least get a rejection message saying its not possible on ny device so they know it wasnt received
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. The crappy texting service that GV provides is the only thing keeping me from using it full time. MMS isn't the only issue.

I'm gonna drop the Verizon text add-on and give it a try. $70/mo for unlimited LTE is amazing!
Anything I should do to make sure im not being charged for texts? Just composing them within the voice app so I think I'm ok, just slightly paranoid.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

craighwk said:
Agreed. The crappy texting service that GV provides is the only thing keeping me from using it full time. MMS isn't the only issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love the texting service from GV. It's my primary means of communicating with many people. There's so many advantages to it, including, in no particular order:
1) It's free. I turned off my SMS plan with AT&T last summer and have been 100% exclusive GV for texts since. I'm saving $20/month on my AT&T phone bill and selected NO text messages on my new Verizon account and I still have unlimited texts.
2) It works across multiple phones, platforms, devices all at the same time. When you send me a text to my GV number, it shows up on all four of my active cellphones, and on all of my computers and laptops that have GV web page open or the GV plugin (for Chrome). I can respond to them without even pulling my phone out of my pocket if I'm at the computer.
3) My texts are automatically backed up in the Google cloud, no need to worry about losing them or backing them up special on my phone as I swap ROMs or wipe data. And I can access them from any phone or web enabled computer.
4) I get all my messages, no one's ever complained that I didn't respond to something they sent that didn't come through. Seems very reliable to me after 15 on it.
As for MMS service, I think Steve Jobs was correct, albeit too far ahead of his time, when he said on the original iPhone that you didn't need MMS, just use email on a smartphone. It was a bit painful way back then (2007...seems so long ago in cell phone terms) at first, but once I trained all my contacts to just send via email I haven't missed any of the pics they want to share, and I'm not paying anything extra to the phone company for the privilege of getting a lower resolution image that's been scaled down to meet MMS limitations.

Thanks for the directions on setting up GV Voicemail, I had to google the instructions (go figure) and found the same info after a quick search. Tested it today and it's working like a champ.
Sweet Jesus I really dig this phone.

I was told by the verizon customer service rep that call waiting is no longer available if you route GV to be the VM service. Anyone else successfully rig it so they can still maintain call waiting but use GV to intercept voicemails?

I have never had a problem with call waiting. Also when I set it up on my Thunderbolt I got the error message as well but when hit skip and went thru the rest of the steps, I checked to see if it was set in my phone settings and it was had a buddy call to test it and it worked just fine not really sure what happened to make i just work without haveing to complete the step where it makes you make the calls during set up but mine is working just fine.

Oh yeah guess I should mention I only you it for the visual voice mail though.

denonlake said:
I had a problem setting up voicemail for my verizon number to work with google voice and thought I would share how i corrected it.
I installed GV app and it said my carrier does not support automatic config.
I could view old messages I had but all new incoming calls went to my verizon VM
In order to route calls to GV VM I had to
Dial *71xxx-xxx-xxxx where xxx is your google voice number and hit call
it will beep a few time then hang up
next
Dial *90xxx-xxx-xxxx where xxx is your google voice number and hit call
it will beep a few time then hang up
next
Dial *92xxx-xxx-xxxx where xxx is your google voice number and hit call
it will beep a few time then hang up
next
This successfully routed all incoming calls to my google voice.
To deactivate call being routed you must do this
*73 call
*900 call
*920 call
Hope this helps someone else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great info! thanx.
Question, how did you get GV to sync your GV on-line contacts list to your phone?
When I setup my phone it would not recognize my GV login and would tell me I didn't have a google account and to create a new one.
After creating a Gmail account it did recognized my phone and said you can use more than one google account login.
My GV login is working now, but I cant access my GV contacts unless I open a browser and login via the web access.
Any suggestions?
Thanx
figured it out, you have to apply a new account using the web assist option if not using gmail.

Mod please delete this post! ** Disregard, added comments in original post ***

I figured out what was wrong with Google Voice. It doesn't work with the 747 area code because Gizmo numbers used to start with 747. Its the new overlay for the San Fernando Valley. 818 area code is running out of numbers. I snooped around my Verizon account page and I was able to change it to a 818 #.
All is right in the world.

Just switched to Verizon last week (got the Droid Charge) and have been trying to get GV working for my outbound calling. I keep getting an error (bad number when it tries dialing out, and have seen more than one bad number). I googled looking for help with it...found tons of 3 year old posts with vague answers...
Anyone else had this issue? Know how to resolve it? Everything else with GV works fine on my phone, just can't dial out.
Thanks -

denonlake said:
I had a problem setting up voicemail for my verizon number to work with google voice and thought I would share how i corrected it.
I installed GV app and it said my carrier does not support automatic config.
I could view old messages I had but all new incoming calls went to my verizon VM
In order to route calls to GV VM I had to
Dial *71xxx-xxx-xxxx where xxx is your google voice number and hit call
it will beep a few time then hang up
next
Dial *90xxx-xxx-xxxx where xxx is your google voice number and hit call
it will beep a few time then hang up
next
Dial *92xxx-xxx-xxxx where xxx is your google voice number and hit call
it will beep a few time then hang up
next
This successfully routed all incoming calls to my google voice.
To deactivate call being routed you must do this
*73 call
*900 call
*920 call
Hope this helps someone else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I tried this and every time I do and call from another phone, there is nothing there for google voicemail. It says "please enter the number you would like to call followed by the # sign". What am I doing wrong? I dialed all 3 *numbers followed by the google voicemail number. I've tried this like 3-4 times. Help!

swtkimmie said:
Ok, I tried this and every time I do and call from another phone, there is nothing there for google voicemail. It says "please enter the number you would like to call followed by the # sign". What am I doing wrong? I dialed all 3 *numbers followed by the google voicemail number. I've tried this like 3-4 times. Help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to login in to your google page and activate it, don't remember how but the help section on your google voice page has the steps
Bamf is runnin' my bolt - smoke that vzw!

whenever I go to dial the x71xxx-xxx-xxxx i get a message saying "welcome to verizon wireless your call can not be completed as dialed.

AT&T Messages - visual voicemail plus garbage

Since I haven't been able to get my Google Voice set up with this device for some reason, I decided to set up visual voicemail through AT&T's "Messages" app. I had called 611 to figure out why GV wasn't working and the rep pointed me to this app. So far, it seems to work fine EXCEPT it also grabs my text messages and missed calls.
I'd rather not have two notification for every missed call (yes, it pops something in the notification bar for missed calls, as does the standard phone app). At this point, I don't even care which one is going to track them, I just want to turn one of their notifications off! Has anyone figured out a way to do that? Or, alternately, is there another way to access my AT&T visual voicemail without their messages app?

belyle said:
Since I haven't been able to get my Google Voice set up with this device for some reason, I decided to set up visual voicemail through AT&T's "Messages" app. I had called 611 to figure out why GV wasn't working and the rep pointed me to this app. So far, it seems to work fine EXCEPT it also grabs my text messages and missed calls.
I'd rather not have two notification for every missed call (yes, it pops something in the notification bar for missed calls, as does the standard phone app). At this point, I don't even care which one is going to track them, I just want to turn one of their notifications off! Has anyone figured out a way to do that? Or, alternately, is there another way to access my AT&T visual voicemail without their messages app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can set-up google voice here is how to do it.
Go on to google.com/voice and go into settings.
Click activate your phone, and follow the instructions (it will tell you to type in a code on the Dialer).
Then, install the google voice app, and run through the set-up, you will fail on the configuring voicemail steps but thats okay.
Call 611 (ATT Technical support) and have them manually change your voice-mail number to your google voice number.
Done. Enjoy google voice as voicemail. The app will work as intended.

warri said:
You can set-up google voice here is how to do it.
Go on to google.com/voice and go into settings.
Click activate your phone, and follow the instructions (it will tell you to type in a code on the Dialer).
Then, install the google voice app, and run through the set-up, you will fail on the configuring voicemail steps but thats okay.
Call 611 (ATT Technical support) and have them manually change your voice-mail number to your google voice number.
Done. Enjoy google voice as voicemail. The app will work as intended.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have Google voice only to be voicemail; I don't currently use it for any calls. It looks like my Voice call-in number is a generic voicemail call-in number (although tbh I haven't tried calling that number to see what happens). Is that the number that I'd give AT&T?

Yes you give them your Google Voice number (you had to set one up when you got google voice)
If you go to https://www.google.com/voice#phones
You should see listed your google voice number, and your phone that you need to activate.

warri said:
Yes you give them your Google Voice number (you had to set one up when you got google voice)
If you go to https://www.google.com/voice#phones
You should see listed your google voice number, and your phone that you need to activate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried this, and now cannot receive any calls. I think that the number that's shown there is a generic voicemail only mail. Going to try setting up a google voice number and do it again.
Edit to add: OK, I set myself up with a brand spanking new google voice number, had to monkey around on my phone a bit in "call" settings in the settings menu to fix my call forwarding. I repeated the steps, but didn't have to call AT&T again and everything is working goodly now.

I had sprint before I got my One X. Google Voice was set up just fine on that phone, but I want to have it on my One X now.
When I go to www.google.com/voice#phones I see my phone number but the carrier is listed as Sprint. Should I just change it to AT&T? Then run through the app setup? Not sure what to do here...

belyle said:
I'd rather not have two notification for every missed call (yes, it pops something in the notification bar for missed calls, as does the standard phone app). At this point, I don't even care which one is going to track them, I just want to turn one of their notifications off! Has anyone figured out a way to do that? Or, alternately, is there another way to access my AT&T visual voicemail without their messages app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Has anybody found an answer for this?

Did you guys see this topic?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1452330
It's the Visual Voicemail app that other android LTE phones use (Vivid, Skyrocket).
Caveat: Since you added att messages, you will need to uninstall it first, and then call AT&T and ask them to revert you to basic voicemail. When you call your voicemail, you notice the voice prompts have changed from before, yes? That switched you to a different VM system incompatible with the old VVM app.
When I called, they switched me to LTE without VVM - i was able to just change from my online account back to regular LTE (with vvm) and install the app and voicemail was all setup and I was ready to go. I'm not sure if asking them to switch you to "old" vvm would work, their system might only show that you have VVM already.
This aforementioned app does voicemails only.