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Google Voice - Google Number? & Texting?

I just got google voice (had to get an invite on ebay !@#$%#) and I am busy combing the posts to figure out how to best use it.

I have a discounted line with tons of minutes, free texts, blah blah. I have VZW visual vm, which sorta blows. Because I get it cheap, I didn't mind. But now that I have GV, I figure I might try it. Frankly Im still not entirely sold on visual voicemail. I dont see a big advantage to just dialing *86.. Maybe someone can enlighten me?

The main reason I wanted to get a GV # is to send/receive SMS/MMS messages 'outside' if the VZW network, but still be able to get these/send these from my droid. I havent found any definitive answer to this set up. Is it possible?

I opened my GV app, hit Compose, pick a contact and send. The end recipient gets a message from my GV#, and replies to that #. Not using my VWZ# at all. BUT, how does this show on the bill? Im not even concerned about getting charged for the SMS/MMS (cause it's free) but how does it show on the bill? It's a work phone.

Thanks.
 
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Frankly Im still not entirely sold on visual voicemail. I dont see a big advantage to just dialing *86.. Maybe someone can enlighten me?

For me at least, the voicemail is what appeals to me. First, reading it is *much* more subtle than playing it back. Should I desire to hear it, the voice app is much faster: no password to enter, no menu to navigate, no expiration on any v.mail you feel the need to save. You have much more control with GV than you get with VZW.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk
 
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and checking your voicemail with gv doesn't count against your minutes.. calling VZ to check your voicemail does.. bastards ..

Sipdroid with a little back end work, you can have free phone calls too.. i use sipdroid to make phone calls when i know i'm going to be on hold for a while.
Unlimited Free Calling with Google Voice - Google Docs

enjoy..

-=<> Aaron <>=-
 
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For me at least, the voicemail is what appeals to me. First, reading it is *much* more subtle than playing it back. Should I desire to hear it, the voice app is much faster: no password to enter, no menu to navigate, no expiration on any v.mail you feel the need to save. You have much more control with GV than you get with VZW.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

and the transcribing is pretty spot on?
 
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It's still not clear to me after reading these posts but I wanted to clarify...

If you use the Google Voice Number to make calls from my cell phone, it will still count against my plan minutes for Verizon since I'm making them from that phone, right??

However, if you text using your GV from your cell phone, it will NOT count against your texting plan??

Thanks.
 
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It's still not clear to me after reading these posts but I wanted to clarify...

If you use the Google Voice Number to make calls from my cell phone, it will still count against my plan minutes for Verizon since I'm making them from that phone, right??

However, if you text using your GV from your cell phone, it will NOT count against your texting plan??

Thanks.

For calls, yes, it will count against your minutes.

Unless you have your Google number setup as a friends and family number (or whatever cell providers call it where you have free calls to X number of phone numbers). In that case, you can call your GV number, then dial the number you want to call. Have GV show your GV number when people call you. That way it is free outgoing and incoming (if you have the free friends and family).

For text, as long as you are using GV's mobile website to send / receive texts or using the GV Android app to send / receive texts, it is free, as it is all data and I am assuming you have unlimited data on your plan.
 
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when you txt with google voice, are you supposed to be able to tell who is txting you? like should it say it's coming from your contact? the last time i tried to use GV for txting, my incoming txts all appeared to come from some 650 number so it was very difficult to figure out who txts were coming from.

i'm hoping this has/will change so i can switch to free GV txting.
 
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when you txt with google voice, are you supposed to be able to tell who is txting you? like should it say it's coming from your contact? the last time i tried to use GV for txting, my incoming txts all appeared to come from some 650 number so it was very difficult to figure out who txts were coming from.

i'm hoping this has/will change so i can switch to free GV txting.

Using the GV app, if the person is in your Google contacts, then yes, their name will show up. If not, their number will show up.

If you are using SMS forwarding to your cell phone (ie, not using the GV app), then when you receive a text to your GV number, it will show up as coming from a 406 area code number. However, if the person sending you a message is in your Google Contacts, that person's name will appear at the beginning of the text message. If the person is not in your Google contacts, I assume it will just show their phone number as the first part of the text message.
 
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