So many SMS apps to choose from. I'm giving my SGP5 to my 10 year old, and want a simple texting app that requires no cell phone (Wifi only).
Google Voice seems good, other than a little trouble getting phone number and no MMS.
Others I'm looking at (/playstore rating): Kakao (4.5), Textnow (4.2), Heywire (4.3), Tabletalk (4.4 + $3)
Textnow looks the simplest... Want something where no one else (her friends) needs to be on the same app. Just plain texting number to number, little to no adds. Which works best?
I use talkatone personally, just need a google account set up correctly, you get to choose a number, completely free
Sent From my USA Galaxy Player 5.0
Thanks. Decided to use Google Voice. Used her mothers cell# to get the GV#, then unchecked the cell#. Texting works fine. She now has the option of adding GrooveIP (when she gets older). I had it on the Player before I got rid of my account with factory reset, it worked well.
tcat007 said:
Thanks. Decided to use Google Voice. Used her mothers cell# to get the GV#, then unchecked the cell#. Texting works fine. She now has the option of adding GrooveIP (when she gets older). I had it on the Player before I got rid of my account with factory reset, it worked well.
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so you did not have to port the #?
i have a 4.2 that I would like to use also for texting. I do have a verizon phone, but if I could stay away from porting and taking on a new # it would be great.
thanks!!
I like pinger myself. Maybe i just got used to it but i picked my own number from a list and house phone and cell both have same area code and prefix. It has voice mail text that sends pics.i have never paid anything but minutes were much less than anyone else's. I have it on 2 iPad 1st and 2nd gen. A KINDLE fire many androids and no problems.
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Related
(Q) Hey guys does any one know more or less how to work google voice? And have you ever used it for international calls if so please help thanks in advance.
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frankrmz said:
(Q) Hey guys does any one know more or less how to work google voice? And have you ever used it for international calls if so please help thanks in advance.
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i've been using google voice for a few years now but have never used it to make an international call. i have seen them publish their international rates, which can be viewed on the web site version of google voice. i googled the terms, "google voice international rates" and found them published - https://www.google.com/voice/b/0/rates
also in the google voice application you can set the application to route all international calls from the phone through google voice hence having the call charge your google voice account at the international rate google voice offers.
thats a bunch of general information to answer your general questions. if you have a more specific question, let us know and we'll do our best to answer!
hope that helps!
I think you can use skype for international for free?
I have used it
I have been using Voice since the beginning and have used it many times to call internationally. My girlfriend calls home to Russia with it sometimes since the rates are better than Yahoo and it is easy to use the phone with the Voice app set to make international calls via GV. It is true that you can call for free with Skype as long as you are calling to another Skype device, but this is the same for GTalk, Yahoo, etc.
A note about adding credits (it has been a while since I last did this, so they might have fixed it), when you add credits, it takes a while for them to display via the app and via a web browser. I think even when I tried to call they had not posted right away and it took a few hours which sucks. I ended up getting double the credits bc I thought it didn't work the first time and did it again. So my advice is if you plan to use it someday, add the credits now so you will have them if you need them.
integra3g said:
I have been using Voice since the beginning and have used it many times to call internationally. My girlfriend calls home to Russia with it sometimes since the rates are better than Yahoo and it is easy to use the phone with the Voice app set to make international calls via GV. It is true that you can call for free with Skype as long as you are calling to another Skype device, but this is the same for GTalk, Yahoo, etc.
A note about adding credits (it has been a while since I last did this, so they might have fixed it), when you add credits, it takes a while for them to display via the app and via a web browser. I think even when I tried to call they had not posted right away and it took a few hours which sucks. I ended up getting double the credits bc I thought it didn't work the first time and did it again. So my advice is if you plan to use it someday, add the credits now so you will have them if you need them.
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very helpful advice. i know google has quite an advanced scheme to detect fraudulent transactions so their process can sometimes take a few hours to verify a legit transaction.
in addition to the comments on using skype/gtalk for free international chatting, if you're really into your google voice account and are at a computer, you should able to make phone calls out of your gmail account, using gchat which automatically routes through your google voice account.
i've only used this method to make and receive calls domestically, so i'm not sure how the international portion would work. maybe somebody has tried this method internationally and can post up their experience?
domestically, it has been very convenient if you're at your computer and sometimes calls your google voice number, it will ring in gtalk and you can answer directly there. makes it convenient to have one phone number ring everything.
hope that helps!
il Duce said:
I think you can use skype for international for free?
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Only Skype to Skype but yes.
Same for GTalk
If you try and call a regular LAN line or cell number via GTalk that is domestic, it is free (for now), but international calls still cost money and the rates vary. GTalk to GTalk voice is free. I don't think there is any way to call internationally totally free without the use of the same app on both ends or PCs being involved (correct me if I am wrong). I think if there was, it would rule the market. My girlfriend only uses it to call a cell phone or LAN line to tell them to get on Skype or one of the many other video chat apps they use. My dad has a MajicJack that he uses when he travels but even that is $20 a year (I think??).
So far the SGS2 is great except for one thing, the antiquated voice mail system app.
As much as the iPhone sucked a chubby, it did have that one good feature. I’ve searched the Market and Forum for something comparable but came up empty handed. I’m not looking for Dialers, Contacts, Voice Dial, or anything else fancy; I just want that damn Apple Voice Mail interface.
Does anyone have a suggestion? Would love to see someone put it in the stock Phone/Dialer.
JoeDodds said:
So far the SGS2 is great except for one thing, the antiquated voice mail system app.
As much as the iPhone sucked a chubby, it did have that one good feature. I’ve searched the Market and Forum for something comparable but came up empty handed. I’m not looking for Dialers, Contacts, Voice Dial, or anything else fancy; I just want that damn Apple Voice Mail interface.
Does anyone have a suggestion? Would love to see someone put it in the stock Phone/Dialer.
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i felt the same way until I installed Google Voice, its is great! Does visual voicemail and it transcribes the message as well. A little tricky to set up at first but works great!
joshuadjohnson22 said:
i felt the same way until I installed Google Voice, its is great! Does visual voicemail and it transcribes the message as well. A little tricky to set up at first but works great!
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Google Voice Rocks! .. Add a widget to your homescreen and I've grown to love it more then iPhone Voicemail.app
do you have to use your google voice number or can you use your own number?
ElectronicYank said:
do you have to use your google voice number or can you use your own number?
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you use your own number. it just forwards all unanswered calls straight to your GVoice voicemail
i got a gvoice account a long time ago but never use it. i came from an iphone so i got very accustomed to visual vmail.
can someone link me or help me on setting up gvoice mail?
thanks!
polobreaka said:
i got a gvoice account a long time ago but never use it. i came from an iphone so i got very accustomed to visual vmail.
can someone link me or help me on setting up gvoice mail?
thanks!
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Install Google Voice from the market, and then run it. Just follow the steps.
Don't know why I didn't install this earlier cause it freaking rules.
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Google voice is the best out the bunch. Especially love the transcripts, always makes for a great giggle.
How do i select my greeting for google voice? I set it so that my regular calls get forwarded it to its voicemail, but i dont see any setting for greetings
ChocolateSnow said:
How do i select my greeting for google voice? I set it so that my regular calls get forwarded it to its voicemail, but i dont see any setting for greetings
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From a web browser www.Google.com/voice then go into the settings.
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you can use google voice for free texting from your actual number? I used heywire for free texting, but people that texted my real # weren't notified that I couldn't receive texts, then I split an "unlimited" with a friend for $30/mo
Google voice does it for free from your real # without error?
Edgarhighman said:
you can use google voice for free texting from your actual number? I used heywire for free texting, but people that texted my real # weren't notified that I couldn't receive texts, then I split an "unlimited" with a friend for $30/mo
Google voice does it for free from your real # without error?
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yup. Or you can choose a new gvoice number, like having 2 lines, but ones is totally free! And people can call and text that number, and you will receive it on your device, also you can choose before each call whether to call from your g voice number or your reg number.
I have been hearing alot of people using the google voice voice mail over the stock voice mail. Can someone chime in and explain what are the advantages of using the GVM vs stock? Also how do you go about this? Any help is appreciated.
In my case, its I go Google VM for the network saving + the many other features of Google Voice.
I rather not lose my Voicemail access between devices & so I like accessing them from anywhere.
Google Voice can be used for just VM but I cant help you there as I've fully integrated. I do recommend going Google Voice entirely though.
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Anyone else?
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I completely integrated, it works great. They are supposed to be working on integrating mms too but so far it doesn't work well
You get another phone number that you can have forwarded to any other phone or multiple phones. You can set people in different groups and set different options for each group. You can have different outgoing messages for each contact or group so your friends here one thing, but your boss hears another. You get great long distance rates using your google voice number. I think it's still free to Canada. Perfect if you don't want to give out your real number or if you want one number to consolidate a bunch of phone numbers. You can block numbers you don't want calling you anymore. If you're going to be busy you can use the "do not disturb" feature which sends people right to voicemail. You get so much more space for voicemails. And they are all organized just like google mail. You can star messages and keep them forever.
So much and it's all free. Why not just try it? Here's the google voice features video
I finally got it setup properly a few days ago and I'm loving it. Blown away by all the features. During setup, using my phones browser, when it got to the part where I called my phone from the website (ON my phone ), and I recorded my greeting from the website on my phones browser , I knew this was some good sh1t.
And I love having the voicemails accessible directly from call log.
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If you haven't already, try adding grooVe IP into the mix to really have your mind blown.
I really like it anyway. The only small drawback is about a 2-3 second delay on (free)voice calls
What does everybody do for their SMS/MMS needs?
I have typically used Google Voice for *everything*, but with the Note II, I feel like using the built-in MMS because the stock messaging app (and third-party ones) are just so much better looking. They also allow MMS, which Google Voice doesn't.
I installed Google Voice integration free version, and it actually worked pretty decent on the Note II with CleanRom 3.5. But then I started thinking that maybe I should look for alternative 'universal SMS' apps like Google Voice, but that support MMS so I don't get the situation where somebody MMSes me on my GV number and I miss it. Whatever the solution is, I need a web interface to text from, too.
I am currently on a cruise and use GV to text and stock MMS for pics. They both use data so I turned on the the international data plan for $25. It works like a charm. I can even use GV for voice calls over data. No need to switch SIMs in this situation. I guess if you are traveling to another country for a while a new SIM may be more cost effective, not sure though as I haven't done the math.
I work I a hospital basement with no cell service, but I have data. I use text plus for texting w/o mms, grooveip for voice calls. Google voice will shutdown after too many texts it seems at least when texting by browsers.. I also don't like Google as it never seems to display the first message of the day until someone replies.
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I love Google Voice. I suggest setting it to forward texts to your real phone number (it's in the settings on the web) and then you can use 3rd party apps like GoSMS to reply to messages which will then go through your Google Voice number. It's a little confusing but totally worth it for the convenience of Google Voice.
Samsung is pushing their service called chatON. I am using it. So far so good. It is battery friendly. Just wish more of my friends using it though
Sent from Verizon Galaxy Note II using Tapatalk 2
I have a Samsung Galaxy Note II that has been rooted and uses CleanROM 5.0. Today I noticed that my Google Voice messages are not only being received by the GV App, but also by the stock messenger App. Also, the stock messenger App will reply through whichever source the SMS came in (either Google Voice or Verizon). This surprised me, as I don’t remember ever getting GV messages that way before. Google Voice messages would only go to the GV App. I have also determined that I don’t even need to be logged on to the GV App for this to work. I tried Googling this to see if it was normal. All I could find was recent news of this being achieved by a Cyanogen Mod and there also being an App that will do this. I have neither a Cyanogen mod nor that App. What am I missing here? Why is the doing this for me? In any case, I’d like to use just the Stock App for everything I’d like to know how to make all outgoing messages default to using just Google Voice. Any ideas around why this started happening and how I can control how new messages will be sent?
Answered my own question (mostly)
OK, I found out why this started happening. Somehow I had changed the setting in Google Voice, so that text messages were getting sent my cell phone. So duh.... when I received a text to my Google account, it also was going to my Verizon account, and thus my stock messaging app. I found this out when I saw all the text charges Verizon was billing me for. So now I am using that App, called Stock Messaging Application with Google Voice, It looks somewhat like the stock application- but not quite (I like the stock better). It does catch messages coming in from both Google and and Verizon. I have it set to reply to all through Google- which it does. This is mostly what I wanted to do- the problem is, it's a little buggy. Sometimes a message won't go in or out. And as I said, I still like the stock app better.
So I still have a remaining question. Does anyone know if, or when, the breakthrough of this from July (for Cyanogen Mod) is showing up for other ROMS?
limulus said:
OK, I found out why this started happening. Somehow I had changed the setting in Google Voice, so that text messages were getting sent my cell phone. So duh.... when I received a text to my Google account, it also was going to my Verizon account, and thus my stock messaging app. I found this out when I saw all the text charges Verizon was billing me for. So now I am using that App, called Stock Messaging Application with Google Voice, It looks somewhat like the stock application- but not quite (I like the stock better). It does catch messages coming in from both Google and and Verizon. I have it set to reply to all through Google- which it does. This is mostly what I wanted to do- the problem is, it's a little buggy. Sometimes a message won't go in or out. And as I said, I still like the stock app better.
So I still have a remaining question. Does anyone know if, or when, the breakthrough of this from July (for Cyanogen Mod) is showing up for other ROMS?
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Just posting to let you know I am following your thread and I'm interested in the results as well. Let's hope somebody comes along with some more information. Do you have a link to that app?
Recieving Google VOice SMS test with stock Android messenger app
flvinny521 said:
Just posting to let you know I am following your thread and I'm interested in the results as well. Let's hope somebody comes along with some more information. Do you have a link to that app?
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Glad to see someone else cares- I was actually kind of surprised by the lack of feedback/interest in this. I would have guessed this would be of more interest to people....oh well.
The app I was referring to can be found on the Google Play Store- it is called "Messaging + Google Voice", the developer is Troxie.net
This board won't let me post the link.
The problem with this app is that it seems a little buggy. Sometimes messages don't send or receive- but in general it does what it says. I have also found the Text for Free service by Pinger works pretty well with the stock messaging. You can set it so that all of your cell phone service based texts will also go into the Text for Free app. Then when you reply, the outgoing message will go through text for free. However, this is a separate number- not a Google Voice number.
limulus said:
Glad to see someone else cares- I was actually kind of surprised by the lack of feedback/interest in this. I would have guessed this would be of more interest to people....oh well.
The app I was referring to can be found on the Google Play Store- it is called "Messaging + Google Voice", the developer is Troxie.net
This board won't let me post the link.
The problem with this app is that it seems a little buggy. Sometimes messages don't send or receive- but in general it does what it says. I have also found the Text for Free service by Pinger works pretty well with the stock messaging. You can set it so that all of your cell phone service based texts will also go into the Text for Free app. Then when you reply, the outgoing message will go through text for free. However, this is a separate number- not a Google Voice number.
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I actually use the Sprint integration with Google Voice, so I am using only one phone number, my Sprint mobile number. I am really just trying to set it up so that if I am at my PC and I send an SMS with the web interface, that message will also be displayed on my phone. Right now, I can see that message in my google voice app, but not any third party SMS app (like Textra, which I use). I want to be able to use Textra to send all my SMS and MMS, and have it sync any messages I send using the google voice web interface as well.