Using Google Voice for your Verizon Voicemail

[entelechy3]

I got a Google Voice invite about a week ago, and while I mainly just wanted the voicemail perks, I went for the new number, just so I could have all the bells and whistles when I eventually need them.

In the meantime, however, rather than let the account sit idle, I really wanted to figure out how to use the Voice visual voicemail for my Verizon line. I was on an iPhone for almost two years--I'm never going to go without visual voicemail again. But I'm not paying Verizon for it, the third-party apps I've tried all had enough annoying traits to drive me away, and hot damn, inaccurate as it may be, I want voicemail transcription if only for the comedic benefits of reading the mad-lib transcriptions of friends' voicemails.

So, anyway, I finally stumbled across this post on the Google forums, giving a step-by-step procedure to redirect your missed/ignored/busy calls to your google voice account. (Basically, you make three calls using prefixes and your google voice number to set the redirects... the instructions also include all of the codes to undo all the redirects if/when you decide to go back to normal.) I tried it out, it took all 60 seconds to set up, and it works beautifully.

Depending on how your voice account is set up, you may need to adjust some settings (so you don't get an email, text, AND google voice notification every time you get a voicemail, which I quickly discovered was quite annoying).

Again, this only works if you have a Google Voice account, with a new number (but then, if you got GV for an existing number, you wouldn't have to go through all this).

Don't know if anybody will find this helpful or not, but for me, it's a great way to get some functionality out of a very cool free service that would have otherwise likely just sat dormant until I finished grad school.

 

[whewstoosae]

I didn't have to do any of the steps you provided, yet all of my voicemails go straight to my Google Voice inbox anyway (I had already disabled some of the notifications to just a Google Voice alert so that it wouldn't be as annoying as you had mentioned). Why would someone need to go through these steps?

 

[jamesmce]

So I also got an account about a week ago, here are my lessons learned.

1. If you perform the NO Answer/Busy Transfer by dialing the *71 (555) 555-5555 then Verizon charges you for each minute that a person leaves a voice mail plus the addition charge to make the call in the first place. To cancel it's *73

2. Free text messaging from your Google voice because it uses data....WRONG... Verizon charges you for every message sent out, but not received as funny as that is..

3. Lastly if you don't have a wireless connection then you can't check your messages on the phone with the Google voice application. It doesn't seem to pull the data across your phone line.

While I think that Google voice as an Idea. is GREAT...Verizon yeah not so much.

Just my feed back

 

[entelechy3]

Why would someone need to go through these steps?

From what you're saying, either you initially set up your GV account with an existing number (in which case Google sets up your redirects for you when you set up your account), or you're magic. So, either way, congratulations, but the procedure I described doesn't apply to you.

 

[mpaquette]

I use the GV voice mail on my Eris and I think it works pretty well. I have the GV app installed and it does a nice job of playing back voice mail, plus it doesn't cost me $2.99 a month like VZW's VVM. The GV voice mail transcription is pretty hit or miss, but on the bright side, some of the transcriptions can be quite humorous.

 

[OfTheDamned]

I have used youmail for a few years now and have loved it. Unfortunately the youmail app for Android eats the battery faster than a fat kid with a cookie. So I switched over to GV. It is the same concept really and I just changed the settings so that it doesn't ever poll for new voicemail. I just open the app when I get an email from GV telling me that I have a message and it starts downloaded.

Mpaquette is right though. The transcription can be horrendous at times and hilarious at others. If you read my GV transcripts you would swear that James Brown calls me 10 times a day.

 

[Tuxas]

So I also got an account about a week ago, here are my lessons learned.

1. If you perform the NO Answer/Busy Transfer by dialing the *71 (555) 555-5555 then Verizon charges you for each minute that a person leaves a voice mail plus the addition charge to make the call in the first place. To cancel it's *73

2. Free text messaging from your Google voice because it uses data....WRONG... Verizon charges you for every message sent out, but not received as funny as that is..

3. Lastly if you don't have a wireless connection then you can't check your messages on the phone with the Google voice application. It doesn't seem to pull the data across your phone line.

While I think that Google voice as an Idea. is GREAT...Verizon yeah not so much.

Just my feed back

I use it just for texting and haven't been charged a penny. Not sure what we are doing different, but I either send from GV prompt or reply to it via e-mail (I have GV forward SMS to e-mail).

Need to add I use a GV number and not my VZ one.

 

[jdub71]

Apparently Ozzy is transcribing my voicemails for me. They are useless. About all I get out of the notification is who called and if they left a message or not. Funny? Absolutely. Frustrating? Without a doubt.

 

[whewstoosae]

From what you're saying, either you initially set up your GV account with an existing number (in which case Google sets up your redirects for you when you set up your account), or you're magic. So, either way, congratulations, but the procedure I described doesn't apply to you.

Nah, I opted for a new number because it would benefit me in the long run (i.e. not being attached to my Verizon number). I noticed that the regular way of trying to get to my voicemail proposed a problem as it would act as if I was a third person calling my number. I remedied it by changing my voicemail number to my Google voice number and then it allowed me to check them again. I have it setup as (MYGOOGLENUMBER) two pauses then MYPASSWORD and it works great.

 

[TivoTron]

My issue is that I also use call forwarding quite a bit (which is *72XXXXXXXXXX, where XXXXXXXXXX is the number you want to forward to).

The "undo" for this is *73, which appears to be the same "undo" for GV.

Any suggestions?

 

[gruss]

I'm using GV for my work phone's voicemail and opted for a whole 'nother number. Works great for when I want to "hide" my actual number but to make it so it didnt ring my phone 6x then gv 6x making someone wait forever you just set up your phone like normal then in GV say "never ring this phone" calls go immediately to VM, and I've been quite happy. Transcriptions are hilarious sometimes but I usually get the jist of it. While VZW charges you the minute for the VM I find i rarely call into vm anymore so...it probably balances out.

 

[reisb]

Hey, hope somebody reads this since it's an old thread.

I have verizon and have been using youmail. I have found that youmail was causing some of the custom roms I've tried to just shut phone off (SOD).

I wanted to try GV instead of verizon $2.99/month.

I see there are 2 options:
use existing cell number and get google voice lite
get new gv number and I'm assuming forward my cell to that gv number for vm

What are differences? Can you still use the gv app to check visual vm if you are on gv lite?

Anything I'm missing?