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Introducing free voice calls from Hangouts

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Re: Introducing free voice calls from Hangouts

#171

Post by nkoren »

Until Hangouts provide the ability to properly control one's visibility, I Will. Not. Use. Them. Full. Stop.

It's somewhat amusing to see Google finally reintroducing functionality which worked perfectly well in GChat years ago. But sad when I reflect on how I now spend so much less time using the Google ecosystem, thanks to their constant dismantling (Reader), deprecation (GChat), divestment (Sketchup), and defacing (Gmail/maps UX/UI) of software which I once relied upon. Google is still doing many things right; why are they consistently getting certain things so wrong?

Re: Introducing free voice calls from Hangouts

#172

Post by peatmoss »

DAddYE wrote: post #150
vidarh wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video chat options in general frustrate me to no end. Skype - at least on Linux - have steadily dropped in quality over the last few years (the old cynic in me wants to blame MS for no particular reason). Back in 2006-2007 I used Skype video chats daily with few issues between the UK and California. These days I have problems getting it to work reliably within London, and have given up on it to let my son talk to his…

I'll be down-voted, although I solved the problem with: .. FaceTime. If you don't have a mac you can get a ipod touch. That's what I use to talk with my family USA->Italy. Is the only thing I found that is reliable and has a quite good quality.

If I ever move overseas again, I will be purchasing an iPod Touch for each and every older family member before departing. FaceTime works remarkably well.

Re: Introducing free voice calls from Hangouts

#174

Post by icebraining »

leni536 wrote: post #51

I'm using a sip provider with much better international call rates than this, however I understand that free calls in the US is really good. I don't have contacts in the US though. I'm using voipstunt.com now with qutecom (after I really fed up with Skype) but there are many similar providers. I'm making phone calls 0.01 EUR/min + VAT to mobile in Hungary (where I live) which is not free but still much better than ot…

How's the quality of your provider? I've been using MegaVOIP (also fed up with Skype) and it's getting terrible.

Re: Introducing free voice calls from Hangouts

#175

Post by eitally »

Beware to everyone setting incoming Voice calls to ring in Hangouts. YOU NEED TO DISABLE THIS FEATURE IN VOICE AT THE SAME TIME, or your phone will ring in two different apps, and continue ringing in the second one even after you answer the call in the first one (no matter whether that's the Android Phone app or Hangouts). This embarrassed me on a business call today.

Re: Introducing free voice calls from Hangouts

#176

Post by ComputerGuru »

untog wrote: post #6

According to /r/android this also finally brings Google Voice into Hangouts: http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/2fz6hh/hangouts_and... I haven't seen the update yet to try it, but am hoping I do soon. This is long, long overdue. All this said - Hangouts on desktop is still so much worse than GChat was - and GChat had free calls too. I'd type a number, two seconds later it would be ringing in the bottom right co…

Yup. It ses Google might be revisiting their lack of interest in Google Voice, as the iOS app has just seen a significant update as well: https://neosmart.net/blog/2014/google-voice-finally-gets-som...

Re: Introducing free voice calls from Hangouts

#177

Post by kolev »

lepht wrote: post #128
gonehome wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somewhat hilariously this change stops any of the text messages from reaching the google voice web app in favor of hangouts (the web app being basically it's only redeeming quality at this point) and there appears to be some weird behavior when texting people through hangouts. The webapp was the only reason I still bothered to use GV since it's felt like it's been abandoned for years now. It's frustrating how great t…

Surprisingly enough, GV for iOS was just updated: - Updated user interface to match iOS7 guidelines - Bug fixes and performance enhancements - Support for Google Voice integration in Hangouts

How about updating on their own platform first to meet their own design guidelines. I'm really disappointed by how Google hooks up to their products and then kills them! This seems like Google Voice still has a pulse, but for how much longer?

Re: Introducing free voice calls from Hangouts

#179

Post by Pxtl »

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #62

"it’s free to call numbers in the U.S. and Canada" It's great that expensive international calls are a thing of the past by now but is this really the right way to go? I'm in the UK - do I have to pay international rates to call UK numbers or will I just not be able to call from the UK 'yet'?

Hell, we can't even get proper google voice here in Canada. I can't actually get a Google Voice phone number here.

Re: Introducing free voice calls from Hangouts

#180

Post by mdaniel »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #127
mncolinlee wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Several carriers offer them and the ones that do will win price-sensitive customers. T-Mobile: http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans/mobile-internet.htm... U.S. Cellular: http://m.uscellular.com/uscellular/plans/data-only-plan.html http://www.popsugar.com/tech/Data-Only-Plans-26912644 Also, T-mobile offers free international data in many, many countries. This may offer a cheaper option than international voice cal…

T-Mobile has a $30/month 5G 4G data, unlimited text, 100 voice minutes plan available, but you can only activate at Walmart or on T-Mobile.com EDIT: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans http://i.imgur.com/5aQ7LRy.png

I have Brightspot, which is a pre-paid MVNO on T-Mobile, and it has been my experience that I cannot use my Google Voice number for voicemail like I could with a post-paid account, and I am experiencing that a lot of the short-code messaging services can't reach me, either. I haven't tried sending an SMS to a short-code service, but my suspicion is "no" on that, too.

Also, and this may be T-Mobile wide, I am experiencing that they are routing all voice traffic over the data line, which means poor coverage now results in ch-op-py dr-op-ou-t speech just like a bad SIP line would. I tried to make a call last weekend and the other end sounded just like a modem it was so bad.

Just caveat emptor.

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