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Updates to our Google Voice apps

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Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#331

Post by drdeadringer »

wutbrodo wrote: post #271
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.

People high up are aware of it; nobody seems competent enough (at management) to do anything about it.

People lower down are aware of it too. It's bonkers.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#332

Post by withdavidli »

They really blew it. Like many, I used GV cause I didn't want to pay for text messaging back in the day. I also was able to get a good number that spelled out a phrase relating to the profession I'm in.

But after all 5 years, no group messaging... seriously. No MMS, went to email in an attachment. Remember back in 2011 there was a month where all my texts received were delayed by hours. When I heard they were concentrating on Hangouts instead I didn't understand why they kept GV around. It should have belonged in their graveyard. Now they're reviving it? Got the unlimited T-Mobile plan, and so many people have free texting now bundled into their plans. I've been using FB Messenger now as my main text program for years.

Google blew this, but granted I would have never guessed text messaging would have gotten this big. My bet would have been on Video Calls.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#333

Post by mwfunk »

tedmiston wrote: post #323
wlesieutre wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's about where I am with this. I got started with GV back when carriers were charging $0.25/each to send or receive texts, and eventually paid Google $20 to port my old AT&T number into their system. Then Google stopped developing the GV app and I switched from iOS to Android to get the Hangouts Dialer integration. With the Hangouts integration instead of a real GV app, they apparently threw away the spam reporti…

> I got started with GV back when carriers were charging $0.25/each to send or receive texts What? Unlimited texting has been included in every phone plan I've ever had since the first iPhone or earlier, before Google Voice existed.

Unlimited SMS has been the norm for a little while now (5ish years maybe?), but it wasn't too long ago that the lower tier plans for every mobile carrier in the US (not sure about elsewhere) had a per text charge, possibly after hitting a low monthly limit on free texts, or possibly with no free texts at all.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#334

Post by peterwwillis »

Am I the only person here who is happy with Google Voice?

The whole point of GV has always been to be a free PSTNVOIP gateway. That's a very valuable feature by itself. AFAIK, only FreedomPop offer mostly the same functionality for free (though not unlimited). Aside from carrier issues, I haven't had any problems with GV.

It just works, it's very useful and it's free. I'm happy with it, and I hope they improve the existing functionality before they add features.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#335

Post by Already__Taken »

WorldMaker wrote: post #133
nextos wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly, I can't understand how Google is so chaotic. Perhaps it's the organization, which looks more like a conglomerate than a cohesive corporation with a clear vision. They release products, only to abandon many of them without a clear reason (like Google Talk). Or they release two products that should be one instead (Android & ChromeOS, or Allo & Duo). The Google Talk fiasco got me particularly disenchanted. A be…

The one-two punch of killing Google Talk and Google Reader in quick succession really hurt my confidence in Google. (Wave too, to a lesser extent.)

Wave I still miss. It was like it didn't go gangbusters straight away so google binned it off. Any it only didn't work because of the stupid JS hijacked chat scroller, where was its promise as a new chat protocol.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#336

Post by Already__Taken »

em3rgent0rdr wrote: post #297
ramses0 wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really... chromeos is the bare minimum linux environment to run a chrome browser on laptop hardware. Android is some frankenstein of java IDE to develop phone software. They might-should-be the same, but they're fundamentally very different roots.

Actually, I'm agreeing with you... Google never really should have done Android but rather skipped directly to making Chrome OS for phones.

A major tenant of Chrome is the rolling update model, nobody has ever got the android vendors to do anything slightly like that. My Moto E gen2 got 1 year of updates that's it.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#337

Post by 4ad »

dpcx wrote: post #188
wvenable wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just switched from an iPhone to Android; there are pros and cons to both platforms. But one of the cons of the Apple ecosystem is how terrible all their (cloud) services are. I still haven't fully bought into the Google ecosystem but I'm slowly move over.

I'd be interested to hear what issues you have with Apple's cloud services. I, personally, have had no problems, but am definitely curious.

The state of the phone is not synced in iCloud, its backed up into iCloud, which is not the same thing. That means if you have multiple phones, once you install a phone from another's phone backup you will have two diverging states.

Various features like "auto install apps I installed on other devices" want to hide this away, but they fail. For example, they will install apps I installed on another device, but they won't install them in the same position on the screen (something very important for me), and they won't delete it.

Also many apps, including apps made by Apple, do not use iCloud to store their settings and data, or use it inconsistently (e.g. only for data, but not for settings). One spectacular example is the messaging app, which doesn't show SMSs received on all devices (although it shows SMSs received on other devices before I made the backup, making it even more confusing). Of course, the messaging app shows iMessages. So some messages work, but others don't.

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#338

Post by marlenephillps »

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Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#339

Post by bhgraham »

tw04 wrote: post #285
AaronFriel wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Well it is a custom skin built into the Google App. I have the Nexus 6p and enabled it by making a change so my device identifies as a Pixel to Google. There was no additional software installed and that was all I did to enable it, make a small text change from "Nexus 6p" to "Pixel XL".

Re: Updates to our Google Voice apps

#340

Post by bhgraham »

spost wrote: post #316
tw04 wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ex…

> 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. I mean, not OP here, but my music library is ~140 GB, and I don't think it's unreasonable to want to have that available without internet access. I run with a 64gb iPhone, so I'm definitely not the guy arguing for massive SD cards on everything,…

They know what they are doing. The whole point is to get you to use their cloud services. But now, if you are a Project Fi user, they are charging for data access to your own content you upload to Play Music.

So now I am back to managing music files on my device and changing them out and feeling like I jumped 10 years back to the past.

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