• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

the goal - 100% google voice, no dup txt, retain SMS history

subject says what i'm after - i want to be on GV 100% (voice, txt, whatever else GV provides)



the problem wiht this so far is that i get duplicate text messages - which is annoying

the reason for my frustration as i see it is that GV is not as integrated into the phone the same way voice calls are - when you dial out, it goes out through my GV number, not my number from my carrier


now, i could send a txt to someone using google's GV widget, but the problem with that is i lose the ability to click on the Messages button in the contact's info page (see pg 36 in the manual) and see my entire text history with that client

bummer




however, as a result of this whole stock-message-app-draining-the-battery "thing" i've jumped onboard the handcent bandwagon

turns out, handcent stores its messages in the phones database/memory/whatever so that the text history is retained and accessible via that Messages button in the contact info page!

nice!



now.. if only you could send OUT to GV's system through these 3rd party messaging apps (thus avoiding GVs app and its inability to save/store txt msg history in the contacts page), we would be set!




well, today i learned that when a person sends you a txt through the GV service (ie - they send you a text to your GV number), it appears to you as a 406 area code (see here - read TuXian's post)

and furthermore, you can save that number in the contact's info page and send to that person using that number





its not "perfect" because its not "seamless" -- the end user has to THINK - and DO SOMETHING for this system to work

which is okay for us "techies" and "enthusiasts" - but for the general public, that's not gonna cut it


but it seems to work at this point







either HTC needs to improve teh Sense UI to incorporate content generated in the GV widget/app, or google needs to store its data in the Hero's file structure.... but this is definitely "kludgy" and they will need to a better job if they expect to rival apple and the iphone in a meaningful and significant way (ok, where did that little rant come from!)



anyway... progress!
:cool:
 
subject says what i'm after - i want to be on GV 100% (voice, txt, whatever else GV provides)



the problem wiht this so far is that i get duplicate text messages - which is annoying

the reason for my frustration as i see it is that GV is not as integrated into the phone the same way voice calls are - when you dial out, it goes out through my GV number, not my number from my carrier


now, i could send a txt to someone using google's GV widget, but the problem with that is i lose the ability to click on the Messages button in the contact's info page (see pg 36 in the manual) and see my entire text history with that client

bummer




however, as a result of this whole stock-message-app-draining-the-battery "thing" i've jumped onboard the handcent bandwagon

turns out, handcent stores its messages in the phones database/memory/whatever so that the text history is retained and accessible via that Messages button in the contact info page!

nice!



now.. if only you could send OUT to GV's system through these 3rd party messaging apps (thus avoiding GVs app and its inability to save/store txt msg history in the contacts page), we would be set!




well, today i learned that when a person sends you a txt through the GV service (ie - they send you a text to your GV number), it appears to you as a 406 area code (see here - read TuXian's post)

and furthermore, you can save that number in the contact's info page and send to that person using that number





its not "perfect" because its not "seamless" -- the end user has to THINK - and DO SOMETHING for this system to work

which is okay for us "techies" and "enthusiasts" - but for the general public, that's not gonna cut it


but it seems to work at this point







either HTC needs to improve teh Sense UI to incorporate content generated in the GV widget/app, or google needs to store its data in the Hero's file structure.... but this is definitely "kludgy" and they will need to a better job if they expect to rival apple and the iphone in a meaningful and significant way (ok, where did that little rant come from!)



anyway... progress!
:cool:

Keep in mind a few things:

1) Google Voice is still in testing, I mean, you can't get an account without being invited. Obviously it could use some more features, but given it's closed nature at the moment, it's a little early to have such expectations.

2) Android is still fairly new. It's been in the wild for a year, and made a lot of progress, but there's still more on the way.

3) Separate Teams. The Google Voice Web team is not the same as the Google Voice App Team or the Google Voice Mobile Web team. It's that way with all google products. In some ways it's annoying because from version to version some features aren't available --- but on the other hand, if it weren't for separate teams, some of these projects wouldn't have different versions period.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones