Reality is Perception

Google Voice recently updated the settings for Caller ID, and I’ve found that I needed to turn it on to avoid confusing my other contacts that use Google Voice.

The setting is “Caller ID (out)”.  This is for the Caller ID number that your contacts see when you text them. (Currently, it’s for texting only.  As the page shows, caller ID (out) will be available for calls soon.  Currently, it shows your Google Voice number automatically if you call from one of your registered phones.)

There are two options for this setting:

1) “Don’t Change Anything”
This means don’t show your Google Voice number to other Google Voice users.

• Either show the number of the phone you’re using (if it’s not registered with your GV account), or
• show your 406 number (if the phone you’re using is registered on your GV account).

2) “Display my Google Voice number”
This means show your Google Voice number when you text another Google Voice user.

Unfortunately, the default is Option 1.  The default used to be Option 2, which was great, since you don’t need to know the 406 number of other Google Voice users.  Now since Option 1 is the default, I started receiving the 406 number from people I already had their Google Voice number for, so it was definitely confusing.

If you’re using Google Voice actively, I’d highly recommend going into your settings and switching your setting to Option 2.

Leave me a comment, email, tweet or call if you have any questions!

I’ve written a couple posts about this, but have figured out the last piece of the puzzle to feel comfortable that everything is taken care of with switching to my Google Voice number, using my iPhone, without having to use an app.  I originally had to jailbreak my phone to get the GV mobile app, but now I know I didn’t need to do that!

Step 1: Sign up for a Google Voice invite.
Go to www.google.com/voice and request an invite (or let me know, since I have 3 invites left to give out, as of today )

Step 2: Pick a new number (or setup your existing number) on the Google Voice setup website.
The big news yesterday is that you now have the ability to use your existing number as your Google Voice number.  I personally have always thought it’s more fun to pick your own number though, obviously.

You lose a lot of the cool functionality (at least right now) if you use your own number for Google Voice, too.  The main thing you currently lose is the ability to SMS from your Google Voice number, and you won’t really be able to complete a full transition without that, now will you?!
More details on new vs. existing number on the Google Voice blog here:

http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?answer=164819

Step 3: Setup your phones you want to be able to deliver calls and SMS to.
If the setup process doesn’t have you enter your existing phone, or you have more phones you want to be able to use your Google Voice service with, then go to the Google Voice website, choose SETTINGS on the top right menu, and the default tab is PHONES.
Click “Add another phone” and fill out the phone you want to setup.  You need to be near that phone, since you’ll be need to answer it to verify the setup.

Step 4: Login to the Google Voice website and start sending SMS messages to your contacts.
I know this is tedious, but if Apple would just approve the stupid Google app, we wouldn’t have to do any of this step!
Send them a message like “Hey there! This is my new number! Save it and reply with your name!”

The “reply with your name” part is important because that’s how you’ll who is texting you back because of Step 4.

Step 5: Save the 406 numbers from the reply text messages as their new numbers.
Each of the replies will come from Google’s own “406″ number for that contact.  This 406 number is for you for your contact, but it’s permanent so you can store it as the GVoice number for this contact.  For more info about what the 406 numbers are, see my previous post on Switching to Google Voice – Part 1.

Use it to call or text this contact and it will look like it’s coming from your Google Voice number.

SIDE NOTE: If your contact has Google Voice too, you’ll just need to save their Google Voice number.  As long as your mobile phone is setup as one of your Google Voice phones, you just have to call/SMS their GV number and they’ll see it’s from your GV number!

YOU’RE DONE!
That’s it!  Once you have everyone’s 406 (GV Reference) number, you’re good to go.  Just use that number instead of their actual number and it will look like everything is coming from your Google Voice number.

This has been especially great so far in practice for when my phone dies and I’m out somewhere without my charger.  I can switch it to deliver to a friend’s phone and receive my calls and SMS’s there, or I can just jump on the GV website and do everything from there as well.

PRO’S:
- Phone freedom.  Place calls and use SMS anywhere – either using the phone or the GV mobile website.
- GV website that I can use instead of my phone, saving my precious battery for syncing, games, etc.
- Got to choose the sexy, elusive 917 Manhattan area code.
- Transcription of voicemails to the GV website, to my email and to my SMS.. Screw AT&T and getting voicemail notifications days after the call was missed! Not once has it happened with Google Voice yet.

CON’S:
- The 406 GV reference number inconvenience because Apple won’t approve the GV app. (again, grrrr….)
- None other I can think of!

What about you?  What are the Pro’s and Con’s that you can think of?

What questions or problems did you have with The Switch?

Want a Google Voice invite?  Leave a comment and let me know!

It works!  Text messaging and phone calls work using my Google Voice phone number from my iPhone 3G!!  WITHOUT AN APP!

I’m not entirely sure if the recent VOIP announcement by AT&T at the CTIA conference this week, but my iPhone is now able to make calls to the 406 reference numbers the Google Voice assigns to all my contacts!  These 406 reference numbers are only for me to my contacts (see my previous post about Transitioning to Google Voice – Part 1 for more on how the 406 numbers work), and until this week, I couldn’t make any calls to those numbers, only text messaging worked with them.

Now I can make calls to them as well!  The setup is a little annoying, as I have to have each of my contacts text me so I can get their 406 reference number, but then I can save that number as their main number that I call and SMS, and it looks to them like I’m calling/texting from my Google Voice number!

I realized that I don’t necessarily call or text EVERYONE in my phone book, so I’m not working to give everyone my number yet, but definitely everyone I text/call a lot.   If someone texts me and I haven’t gotten their 406 reference number yet, I’ll respond from the Google Voice website so it can be from my GV number, and when they text back, I’ll get their 406 reference number.

This was pretty much all I was waiting for to complete my transition to Google Voice!  The final step that the notorious Google Voice App could provide (that Apple has constantly denied/lied about) would eliminate having to get and store the 406 reference number.  Having the app use the native iPhone functionality, you’d just start the app and do everything the Phone and Messages apps do.  For now, though, I’m just over-joyed I get to use the native functionality in the iPhone with my Google Voice number, albeit with a workaround!

Has anyone else tried this yet with your iPhone?  Did you get it to work, too?

Yes, I’m fully in the Google Kool-Aid as much as I have been then Apple Kool-Aid the past few years.  I switched to GMail a few years ago, and then used GoogleApps for my small business since 2007 (and still love it!), and am now very excited about Google Voice, especially because of my previous telecom experience (I worked in IT for Sprint PCS during the 3G roll-out).

I was hesitant to Google Voice at first because I didn’t see why I’d need it.  I haven’t had a landline for more than 10 years now, and haven’t really felt like I needed/wanted anything other than one device in my pocket for everything (phone, iPod, etc.)  HOWEVER, once I started reviewing what I could do with Google Voice, especially what I could do from the website instead of my phone, I was definitely starting to get hooked.

I jailbroke my iPhone recently in order to get the Google Voice app (GV Mobile) on my iPhone, but one of the main drawbacks is it has to connect to the Internet in order to start up.  Apple is blocking the native app that uses everything in the phone already without having to connect first.  (Thanks again, Apple. )

The things that appealed to me most were:
1) Being able to redirect my phone calls/text messages to another number (Scott’s phone, etc) if my battery dies, etc.

2) Being able to see, send, reply to text messages from the Google Voice website in case my service is unreliable (um, AT&T what?)

3) Having reliable delivery of voicemail and text messages when they happen.
- Since AT&T likes to wait sometimes up to 2 days to tell me I have voicemail – I’ve complained to AT&T and they say it’s Apple, and vice versa, of course.
- Google Voice delivers them to the Google Voice website, and can even send text msgs to your email, and voicemail notifications as text messages!  All of what goes where is completely customizable too!

4) The coolest thing relates to #1 is that if I switch to another phone, or even just use other phones for work that allow Google Voice, I can simply switch phone redirects in the Google Voice website and off I go with the different phone, with my contacts and everything!

Here’s a screenshot of the Google Voice website I’m referring to – this one relates to text messages:
(Your GV number actually shows at the top but I masked it in this photo )

Current Transition Status:
Here’s where I am with my testing and migration to using my Google Voice as my main number with everyone.

Texting/SMS:
Texting is the #1 thing I use my phone for, without question.  I have so many roll-over minutes stored up, I’ll never pay for another minute outside my normal monthly charges.

The main drawback besides having to start the app in order to text, is that you can only send texts to one person at a time.  This again is horrible since a LOT of my texts are to multiple people.

The way Google is working the text messages though provides a way to text straight from your iPhone.  Hold on, this one is kind of hard to explain..  In a nutshell, Google creates a reference phone number for each of my contacts.  I can then save this reference number as that contact’s mobile number, and when I want to text that person, I text them the Google reference number and to my contact it looks like it’s coming from my GV number. (ie. if Scott texts my GV number, I see it comes from 406-111-2222. I can then save that 406 number as Scott’s google number, and text it back. When I text that 406 number, Scott receives a text message that looks like it came from my GV number 917-xxx..)

It doesn’t mean that 406 number is Scott’s Google Voice number, it’s just a reference number that Google dynamically created for me to contact him.  (For you mathmetician’s out there, the limit of phone numbers won’t be a problem, because the 406 numbers are my contact’s numbers for me to use.  For example, I’ll have a 406 number for Scott, but if someone else has a GV account, they’d get a different 406 number for Scott.  It’s all dynamic for you to your contacts.)

So, I’ll just be storing the 406 number for each of my mobile contacts that I can use just as easily as their actual phone number.  When I text them to their 406 number, they’ll receive a message from my GV number! (406 spells GOO, btw )

REMEMBER:  This is all because Apple won’t approve the native app for Google Voice for the iPhone.  Once that is able to be launched, all this madness will hopefully go away.

Phone Calls:
For my outbound calls, I’m kind of screwed for now.  I can use the GV Mobile app since my phone is jailbroken, but like I said, it has to connect to the Internet before I can access the functions in the app.

My resolution to this:  if I have to make the occasional phone call from my 312 number, so be it.  Back to my previous statement about rarely making outbound phone calls, I’m fine with opening the GV Mobile app for that.  It’s not terribly slow, just inconvenient.

For my inbound calls, the caller calls my GV number, and those show up on my phone as the caller’s number.  No 406 number there.  The 406 numbers are for text messaging only.

SO, the benefits FAR outweigh the drawbacks from my evaluation.

Plus, have you seen the Call Me widget here on my blog?!  Is that the coolest thing or what?!   There are so many more features that you can do, I’ve only named the basic ones here.  You can setup tons of rules for every phone number you have in your contact list if you want, including forwarding, screening, even the voicemail greeting they hear!  I have a special one set for the blog widget, so go ahead and try it out!

I have a feeling (and a strong desire) that Google Voice will be seemlessly integrated into Google Wave also… now THAT would be cool.

Switching to using my Google Voice number full-time:
My wedding is next weekend, so I’ve decided to wait until after then in order to prevent any meltdowns, disasters, Acts of God, etc. before our big day  so I’ve given it to Scott and 7 friends so far for my testing.  It’s gone well so far with what I’ve described above.

Once the wedding is over next weekend, it’s ON LIKE DONKEY KONG!!

More to come soon…