Better alternative to Google Voice?

[GrandMasterB]

I switched from YouMail to GoogleVoice a couple of weeks ago. I miss YouMail alot.......

I was able to assign a specific greeting for my wife when she calls but it was more of a pain than it worth with GV imo...

Google Voice is better for transcribing , YouMail is better for VoiceMail.


(imo)

 

[punkzanyj]

Youmail will also email a mp3 of the voicemail to your email inbox.

GV does this as well.

 

[Howie]

.......I was able to assign a specific greeting for my wife when she calls but it was more of a pain than it worth with GV imo...

I thought it was a PITA too, but try this. On www.google.com/voice go to Contacts, select the contact you wish, and click on "Edit Google Voice Settings". That will show you the settings based on that specific contact. You'll see "When this contact goes to voicemail", just click "Record New" and Google Voice will call you to record your new message that person will hear. Took me a bit to get that down, but not very bad after the first one or two times. They certainly could make it easier, though.

 

[karimarie]

I'm not sure what is wrong with yours, but mine always tells me that they called and didn't leave a message. If they hang up during the voicemail part it will send me an empty voicemail, so they are hanging up right when the system picks up and begins to play my annoucement. Check the "missed" label in GV. It still emails me that information, but in case you aren't getting the notice that is where to look.

Oh damn, I never even saw that!! It doesn't email me this information, so I had no idea it even existed! Sweet!!! Now I wonder how I get it to email me this... I'm not seeing it in the GV settings. Grr!!

 

[karimarie]

I'm not sure what is wrong with yours, but mine always tells me that they called and didn't leave a message. If they hang up during the voicemail part it will send me an empty voicemail, so they are hanging up right when the system picks up and begins to play my annoucement. Check the "missed" label in GV. It still emails me that information, but in case you aren't getting the notice that is where to look.

Wait, so you're getting an email about missed calls? This thread seems to indicate that that's not a feature, unless that's changed since it was posted.

 

[Howie]

Wait, so you're getting an email about missed calls? This thread seems to indicate that that's not a feature, unless that's changed since it was posted.

Yep. I've been using it for about 5-6 weeks now (switched from YouMail and Hullo Mail). I just tried it again now and while it shows the missed call in Google Voice, it did NOT email me this time. Strange because I have two emails from the last few days that alerted me of a missed call on 11/12 and 11/13. Seems to be hit/miss I guess?

 

[GrandMasterB]

I thought it was a PITA too, but try this. On www.google.com/voice go to Contacts, select the contact you wish, and click on "Edit Google Voice Settings". That will show you the settings based on that specific contact. You'll see "When this contact goes to voicemail", just click "Record New" and Google Voice will call you to record your new message that person will hear. Took me a bit to get that down, but not very bad after the first one or two times. They certainly could make it easier, though.

Thanks for the walk through. That is how I assigned a greeting to my wife last night. My only real problem is I want to upload a wav or MP3 for it to play and not have to record a spoken greeting.

In short , I want Stewie Griffin to greet my wife , not me. I ended up having GV call me and held the phone up to my PC speaker while in another window I played her Stewie gretting from YouMail. Very ghetto indeed , it shouldnt be so difficult...

 

[johnlgalt]

That'd be one way to do it, I suppose....

You ca always use the suggestions link to request this feature to be added to the GV settings- but I have a feeling that it will not make it, b/c of the fact hat there was an ongoing lawsuit that said that people who used ring tones of music were violating sharing rules. Although that was not upheld in court, this sort of situation might have the same implications as a person could then record copyrighted music on their machine an use it as their default greeting, thus (effectively) sharing that snippet of copyrighted music with the world...

I know its a stretch, and so do most people - but the music industry is about as tenacious an animal as I have ever seen in the corporate world when it comes to maximizing its own bottom line while doing very very little to actually deserve said bottom line.

 

[GrandMasterB]

That'd be one way to do it, I suppose....

You ca always use the suggestions link to request this feature to be added to the GV settings-quote]


Funny that you mention that because after assigning the greeting I used the suggestion link and spilled my guts out about GoogleVoice and YouMail and what I liked and or wanted to see implimented and hit submit button and got some "Google error with the system, please try again later" page and lost the whole spill , lol.

 

[DrDroid]

Nothing can beat GV, it's FREE

 

[johnlgalt]

lmfao - I got that yesterday too. Lemme try it again.

 

[johnlgalt]

Samme sh**.....

 

[athflying]

Yeah, but they have to hang up on the voicemail message. I can't speak for Youmail, but for CallWave, if someone hung up BEFORE it got to voicemail, it'd still show that I missed a call from them. That was so so nice to have, and I miss it.

Unless I am totally missing something, why would it matter if you had CallWave, Youmail, or GV...if someone calls and doesn't leave a VM, the phone should show you have a missed call with the phone number.

 

[karimarie]

Unless I am totally missing something, why would it matter if you had CallWave, Youmail, or GV...if someone calls and doesn't leave a VM, the phone should show you have a missed call with the phone number.

Yes, you *are* missing something. If my phone is off (if I'm on a plane, for example) or out of range, getting the email/text notification of any missed calls when I turn on my phone/get signal back is really handy.

 

[athflying]

Yes, you *are* missing something. If my phone is off (if I'm on a plane, for example) or out of range, getting the email/text notification of any missed calls when I turn on my phone/get signal back is really handy.

Well, in that case if you know you were out of range or phone off, all you have to do is open GV and look at the missed label as someone already mentioned....I guess it's more work vs just waiting on a text, but to me not a big deal.

 

[johnlgalt]

But since the option for email notification already exists.....

 

[karimarie]

Well, in that case if you know you were out of range or phone off, all you have to do is open GV and look at the missed label as someone already mentioned....I guess it's more work vs just waiting on a text, but to me not a big deal.

I didn't even know the missed call tab existed until today (not quite sure why I never bothered looking at it!) so I'll definitely be checking it from now on. I was just trying to explain to you why this would be useful, since you were confused. This was a feature I had with CallWave, and I really liked it.

But since the option for email notification already exists.....

I have that turned on. It doesn't notify me of missed calls.

 

[Darbley77]

Im sure this is already been said but just in case -
I just got my Droid yesterday morn but I've been using Youmail since I first got my storm. I loved it for Blackberry but its doesnt fully work with the Droid. You can only get the voice mail over the speaker.

I did send for my Google Voice account but I still haven't got my invite. When I do I will decide which to keep.

 

[aquastorm]

Unless I am totally missing something, why would it matter if you had CallWave, Youmail, or GV...if someone calls and doesn't leave a VM, the phone should show you have a missed call with the phone number.

The thing that many people don't understand is that Youmail emails you a copy telling you that missed a call and gives you the name and number the call came from even if they are not in your contacts which GV DOES NOT do.. It will also capture the callers name and number even if they attempt to block their caller ID..... GV doesn't do this either. The only thing GV has over Youmail at this point is they offer free transcriptions but honestly I don't really care about the transcriptions.. When I can have the voice mail sent directly to my email and then play that Vmail directly from my email inbox that's perfect for me. Transcriptions can be nice but many times the transcriptions in GV are WAY off anyways....

Until GV adds the features Youmail has to me it's a waste of time... Why use Google Voice when it is clearly at this point inferior.

 

[billbunton]

Why use Google Voice when it is clearly at this point inferior.

So your whole point was to prove that because youmail fits your needs better, that must mean that Google Voice is clearly inferior? But I don't care in the least for the features that Youmail has. If someone calls and doesn't care to leave a voicemail, I really don't care to know who they are. On the other hand, Youmail doesn't route incoming calls/sms to whatever phone I happen to be near at the moment; clearly Youmail is at this point inferior.

 

[rsbenedict]

Both apps are good at what they do. Youmail is geared towards visual voicemail and it does that rather well. GV is NOT a visual voicemail client. It is a universal phone app that also does visual voicemail. If all you're looking for is VVM, then youmail might just fit the bill. If what you're looking for is more than just VVM, then GV may be the ticket.

 

[jamesdean]

The thing that many people don't understand is that Youmail emails you a copy telling you that missed a call and gives you the name and number the call came from even if they are not in your contacts which GV DOES NOT do.. It will also capture the callers name and number even if they attempt to block their caller ID..... GV doesn't do this either. The only thing GV has over Youmail at this point is they offer free transcriptions but honestly I don't really care about the transcriptions.. When I can have the voice mail sent directly to my email and then play that Vmail directly from my email inbox that's perfect for me. Transcriptions can be nice but many times the transcriptions in GV are WAY off anyways....

Until GV adds the features Youmail has to me it's a waste of time... Why use Google Voice when it is clearly at this point inferior.

GV is free & allows you to make & receive unlimited calls on your VZ account as long as you have F&F.

GV will give you the caller id if a caller blocks their call and leaves a message.

The email notification on missed calls is a must, fortunately I accomplish this through my VM server via email. So GV is not a restriction here.

The GV transcription in my opinion is worthless.

Having said the above I believe GV is a great tool that is versatile and can be integrated with ones current telephony applications with great success.

 

[aquastorm]

So your whole point was to prove that because youmail fits your needs better, that must mean that Google Voice is clearly inferior? But I don't care in the least for the features that Youmail has. If someone calls and doesn't care to leave a voicemail, I really don't care to know who they are. On the other hand, Youmail doesn't route incoming calls/sms to whatever phone I happen to be near at the moment; clearly Youmail is at this point inferior.

So you have several mobile phones with different phone numbers? Can I ask what the purpose of that is because I fail to see a situation where one would want to have several cell phones/numbers. As far as GV routing calls to your different numbers I can see some value in that although only possibly in a circumstance where a person would want to route calls to their work phone? I just see that the niche that GV fills is much smaller than the one that Youmail fills. GV is great for people that want to have one number ring all of their phones? I think in todays world most people have at most 2 numbers where they would like to be reached 1. at work and 2. on their cell phone and the drop in land line numbers only validates that theory.

Use whatever you want I guess but as far as a voice mail system for purposes of archiving and or personalization/features Youmail trumps GV easily. I couldn't care less about having another NEW phone number to distribute to all of my contacts to then only be cheated out of using Verizons in calling network... No thanks Google..

 

[xtremely4]

I just setup my google voice account...it's pretty slick! Will definitely take some time to get accustomed to, but should compliment the droid very well.

Is there a way to modify the voicemail icon (in the phone keypad) to dial my google number instead of the *86?!! I've already adjusted the 'voicemail' contact to the new number, but this icon still dials *86...thanks!!

 

[jamesdean]

So you have several mobile phones with different phone numbers? Can I ask what the purpose of that is because I fail to see a situation where one would want to have several cell phones/numbers. As far as GV routing calls to your different numbers I can see some value in that although only possibly in a circumstance where a person would want to route calls to their work phone? I just see that the niche that GV fills is much smaller than the one that Youmail fills. GV is great for people that want to have one number ring all of their phones? I think in todays world most people have at most 2 numbers where they would like to be reached 1. at work and 2. on their cell phone and the drop in land line numbers only validates that theory.

Use whatever you want I guess but as far as a voice mail system for purposes of archiving and or personalization/features Youmail trumps GV easily. I couldn't care less about having another NEW phone number to distribute to all of my contacts to then only be cheated out of using Verizons in calling network... No thanks Google..

At what part of billbunton's post did he say he had multiple cell phone numbers?