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Updates to our Google Voice apps

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Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#281

Post by [deleted] »

saurik wrote: post #199
blakesterz wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Frankly, I can't understand how Google is so chaotic. I'd love an open and honest answer from someone up high in the org chart at Google on that. Better yet, just an acknowledgement of it and how they're going to stop doing this in the future. If they were a startup with 200 employees under the age of 30 I'd understand it, but they're obviously waaaaay beyond that stage.

Hell, at this point I would settle for some closure on "what the hell did you mean by 'more wood behind fewer arrows' in 2011 when you began the process of mass project shutdown?!... that's not really how arrows work :/".

[deleted]

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#282

Post by Andrex »

remir wrote: post #113
mmanfrin wrote: post #39

Voice, Hangouts, Messenger, Allo, Duo. Which one should I use, Google, for fuck's sake.

I'd say Messenger, because of SMS which is everywhere but also its compatibility with RCS. Of course, your carrier must support RCS, but most of them will eventually.

Voice is also confirmed to support RCS in a near-term update. Will be exciting when the happens.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#283

Post by tw04 »

djsumdog wrote: post #261
tw04 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

Okay, sure not off direct licensing of the OS. But total revenues are $31 billion. That's a significant number on their balance sheet. http://www.androidauthority.com/how-does-google-make-money-f... The Pixel doesn't have an sdcard slot, which is a deal breaker for me. (I don't rent my music, so I have a 200GB micosd card with my collection on it). Even their 128GB model simply won't cut it.

You're now making a completely different argument. You started out claiming they intentionally break android to force you to upgrade every 2 years. Now you're pointing out they make a ton of money off android from revenues and search... which is exactly what I said. And not at all what you said.

I'm not sure what to tell you on the sdcard slot or how it applies to the discussion. I simply said the Pixel is a clear example of the rest of the android ecosystem not living up to Google's expectations of a premium phone. There will NEVER be a phone that is all things to all people, if an sdcard is a dealbreaker for you, don't buy one. I think it's ridiculous to claim you need 200GB of songs on your phone, but that's your choice. Of course, google will let you upload 50,000 songs for free over google music, so even that excuse doesn't hold water, but I'm sure you'll find another reason to complain.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#284

Post by vit05 »

Facebook has recently added audio options. Google will invest more in voice and audio. It is clearly, for me, that we will see something great happen in audio as we saw before in video and photo

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#285

Post by tw04 »

AaronFriel wrote: post #277
tw04 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

And yet the Pixel is itself a custom skin of Android. Google Assistant? Not available on my Nexus 5X, which I received less than a year ago. Search button behaves differently, Allo behaves differently, "night mode" removed Nexus 5X build and added to Pixel build. I'm upset because I thought switching to a Google-designed Android phone would rescue me from fragmentation and give me access to the best, cleanest Android…

That's not a custom skin... it's an app. And while I can understand complaining they didn't enable it on the 5x, if you REALLY want it, it's extremely easy to enable on a 5x.

I've used it exactly 1 time, and if my choices were a 5x or a Pixel and that was the only feature I cared about, I wouldn't spend the money in a million years to enable it.

Allo is useless to me, so I guess I don't really have any comments there. No desktop app? No multi-device? I'll stick with hangouts.

None of the things you mentioned would be worth upgrading for. And I REALLY don't think you're missing anything. The camera and the build quality are what make the pixel awesome. Assistant, night mode, and allo functioning slightly differently don't even enter into the equation on the price hike being justified.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#287

Post by yborg »

saurik wrote: post #199
blakesterz wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Frankly, I can't understand how Google is so chaotic. I'd love an open and honest answer from someone up high in the org chart at Google on that. Better yet, just an acknowledgement of it and how they're going to stop doing this in the future. If they were a startup with 200 employees under the age of 30 I'd understand it, but they're obviously waaaaay beyond that stage.

Hell, at this point I would settle for some closure on "what the hell did you mean by 'more wood behind fewer arrows' in 2011 when you began the process of mass project shutdown?!... that's not really how arrows work :/".

The real problem seems to be inability to aim. Google fired a ballista at Facebook with G+ and missed completely.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#288

Post by jansenv »

djsumdog wrote: post #137
throwthisawayt wrote: post #26

As an xoogler, this tells me that the voice team is now staffed again. It also tells me that the executive team is thinking about reducing headcount and focus on hangouts, but still are uncertain. Finally, it tells me that google still has no idea how to crack the messaging space, and has so no team internally that is taking charge but a bunch of teams with different approaches, all jockeying for executive support. G…

The Hangouts app fixed the missing MMS/threading issues. So if we've switch from Voice to Hangouts ... do we have to switch back now? It's pretty confusing and there are so many services that won't take either of my Google Voice numbers.

Hangouts API is discontinuing, and the app is buggy as heck. We've already moved away from it and are experimenting with in-house solutions or looking for alternatives. Slack is too pricey, everything else seems shite.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#289

Post by dnr »

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…

It's a little strange to read accounts like this. I've been using Voice continuously for years now, and ported my old number into it. There were a few years when it kinda sucked (yes, I also lost group/mms messages with no warning), but since the integration with Hangouts (2014? 2015?), I've been quite happy with it again: group messages work, pictures in messages work, etc. Hangouts isn't perfect and still has lots of missing features and annoyances, but it's been overall acceptable to me.

I do have two unusual situations that make Voice a good fit for me: I don't have reliable cell reception in my apartment (so texting and calling through wifi is really useful), and I'm on the T-Mobile $30 plan, so I have only 100 minutes on my "real" phone number (so I make as many calls as possible through gmail on my laptop). It's also really nice to use my regular phone number with no extra effort or roaming fees when traveling internationally.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#290

Post by SwellJoe »

Google has kinda proven themselves untrustworthy when it comes to relying on their services; sometimes, they just kill products off. That'd really suck for a phone number.

Nonetheless, I find Google Voice so valuable that I overlooked the potential hassle of it going away. It's just amazingly convenient to get my texts on my computer, tablet, and phone. It's so nice to get voicemails transcribed and in my inbox...I hate making phone calls and I hate listening to voicemail.

So, for all of Google's long neglect of the product, I don't know of anything as good, even among products that cost money. So, I'm not gonna trash talk them now, after they've finally done an update and exhibited some evidence that the product has a future. I'm just glad they seem to plan to keep it alive.

And, for all of Google's neglect of the product, it is still the Google product I recommend more than any other (I think). I may use GMail/Inbox more often, and I may interact with more people via Docs/Drive, but so few people know about Google Voice that I end up recommending it a lot more than anything else.

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