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Updates to our Google Voice apps

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Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#141

Post by djsumdog »

xur17 wrote: post #28
nemesisj wrote: post #17

I've been a Google Voice user for 6-7 years. It became more important to me 5 years ago when I moved to the UK and ported my mobile number to GV. It's not been very pretty. We were thrown a lifeline with the Google Hangouts app taking over for the absolutely-awful Google Voice app. One of the most frustrating things about GV is that for certain SMS providers, it fails the "is this a USA number test" or "can we SMS to…

I just ran into the "this isn't a phone number" issue with Telegram this morning. It claims my Google Voice (well really Project Fi now) number is a VOIP number, so I can't use it :(.

I ran into the same thing. From what I've read, Telegram use to take VOIP numbers, but not anymore. So there are older users who still have their Google Voice number attached to Telegram but new users cannot.

I suspect this is due to the NIST report about using VOIP/SMS for 2-factor was not secure (which is true. They can be spoofed).

I've also worked for a teleco that, in the case of getting an SMS for a ported number, would just send that SMS to ALL the other national providers in that country. We used relays for the other providers that would just drop the message if it didn't belong to them. My first job was actually to fix that by doing a ported number lookup and sending SMSs to only the provider it was ported to.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#143

Post by tw04 »

djsumdog wrote: post #134
baggachipz wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a die-hard Google user/fanboy until about a year and a half ago. I was a Fi user, Voice user (before Fi), Hangouts, Nexus buyer, you name it (I even had a Google TV and almost bought an OnHub). I bailed on it all when I realized that Google has absolutely no long-term vision or desire to support what they produce. I went to an iPhone and despite Apple's warts, it's a night-and-day experience. I'll never again t…

I've never had an eyePhone and switch to Android from Palm's WebOS. But for years I've always used 3rd party ROMS (Cyanogen mostly). Google has a vested interest in not fixing Android's brokenness. They make a lot of money off phones that needs to be replaced every 2 years. With their strict control over OHA, they can easily mandate PC style platform standards to reduce e-waste, fight planned obsolescence and offer r…

>They make a lot of money off phones that needs to be replaced every 2 years.

No... they really don't. They make a lot of money off search traffic and the app store. Android licensing amounts to approximately $0.75 per handset. That's not even a rounding error on their balance sheet, and SURELY not something to "intentionally break android" over. Broken android is a great way to drive people to other platforms. There's nothing to be gained for them in that.

more to the point, why do you think they released the Pixel line-up? They got sick of vendors screwing up Android by skinning every premium handset on the market (and skins are the primary source of broken garbage). And in that endeavor they've been wildly successful. The pixel is by far the best android handset I've ever owned. You pay for it, but it's worth it if you like android.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#144

Post by bisby »

jitl wrote: post #14

I used to use my Google Voice number as my primary contact number, but when development of the product seemingly died for three years without addressing outstanding issues with group MMS or picture messages, I migrated back to my regular cell number. I've already told all my friends to forget my Google Voice number. I've changed my preferences in every service I use to contact my regular cell number. Now Google is so…

I ported my numbers away after running into so many issues where services would use my native phone number rather than my GV number (placing a call from my car, the person on the other end sees my native number, even though I have everything set up properly)

And living in an area with spotty service... native SMS always send, and the GV "over data" SMS usually fail. Unless they can fix a LOT of issues AND add incentive to come back, I think I'm fine without it for now.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#145

Post by 4llan »

fooey wrote: post #140
27182818284 wrote: post #19

I like how this story has shot up immediately to the top of Hacker News. Google Voice is beloved by its users, but Google hasn't shown love for it for (as they point out) five years. I'm glad to see the update! So that's lovely, though overall the PMs and VPs need to reconcile all the apps with each other. A friend recently bought a Pixel Phone and was lost as to what to use. I mean, I can't blame him... * Phone's ge…

It's amazing that Allo and Duo were 100% clearly DOA and absolutely everyone but Google could recognize it. They killed Google Talk, ignored Google Voice, abandoning Hangouts, and their new apps are wastelands. Throw in the Wave, Buzz, and Plus projects, and it's astonishing just how massively Google is screwing up.

They just don't admit how hard did they failed in communications apps. Clearly priority and focus issues.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#147

Post by godzillabrennus »

djsumdog wrote: post #135
vpeters25 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a GV as the primary in my resume for years. Last year, many recruiters emailed me that calls weren't going through with a recording stating "The person you are trying to reach is not accepting calls at this time". I asked in GV forums to not avail. I don't know how many nice job opportunities I missed when hiring managers saw my application but could not call me back until I detected the issue. Ended up switchi…

I still use my GV number for all recruitment. I hate actually taking calls so it works for me fine. I call back the ones I want to on my own time. ... I also hate recruiters. They're scum .. but that's another issue. /sorryrant

You should sign up for http://www.joinjune.com

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#148

Post by daveloyall »

Over the years, I have sent the GV team various strongly worded reminders of the promises they made me.

Personally, I choose to interpret these updates as a their response to me. Finally!

Thanks for making good, big G. Keep it up.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#149

Post by kharms »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #121
nol13 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same gripe I've had on iOS past, could never figure out if my response was going to go over sms, imessage, or email, and if email which account, so I just avoid as much as possible, and don't setup additional accounts on my iOS devices or ones i set up. Mostly to avoid getting "why am i getting email responses to my text messages" questions etc. Not saying it's hard or complicated, just hard and complicated enough fo…

Apple doesn't care if you can communicate with non Apple users. They have their iMessage population hostage. Those people can never switch to Android because they'll be left out of group texts. It's vendor lock-in of the highest order. Spectacular play by Apple, really. They guarantee switching to Android is painful, you risk losing business deals and messages from friends. I doubt it's legal, but for now they are ge…

If you include a non-iOS number in a group chat it becomes an SMS group chat. Not sure what the big deal is.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#150

Post by ohohohkay »

jitl wrote: post #35
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, why didn't you keep using it, but with Hangouts instead?

Group SMS and MMS messages weren't supported by the backing service. As group messages became more popular as more of my friends got smartphones, I'd miss more and more communications that my friends were having. Additionally, there were times when even regular SMS messages would be delivered minutes or hours late. The whole system felt unreliable. It felt like the only purpose was to send outbound messages from the…

Even now with Fi, I experience delays in delivery of SMS occasionally. I don't do SMS normally and most of the time I receive SMS for verification codes. A delay is annoying for that purpose.
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