I used to use my Google Voice number as my primary contact number, but when development of the product seemingly died for three years without addressing outstanding issues with group MMS or picture messages, I migrated back to my regular cell number. I've already told all my friends to forget my Google Voice number. I've changed my preferences in every service I use to contact my regular cell number.<p>Now Google is soft re-launching this service after 5 years, and wants me to come back? No way. They squandered more than 5 years of first-mover advantage in the "free SMS" space, and have lost to WhatsApp, Facebook, and Apple Messages.<p>I'm happy than when I need to send test SMSs on my computer, the web app I use will be slightly better. That's my only use-case for Google Voice anymore.
As an xoogler, this tells me that the voice team is now staffed again. It also tells me that the executive team is thinking about reducing headcount and focus on hangouts, but still are uncertain.<p>Finally, it tells me that google still has no idea how to crack the messaging space, and has so no team internally that is taking charge but a bunch of teams with different approaches, all jockeying for executive support.<p>Google will lose this space because it lacks focus while Facebook is owning it through focus on the messenger platform and the acquisition of whatsapp.
I've been a Google Voice user for 6-7 years. It became more important to me 5 years ago when I moved to the UK and ported my mobile number to GV.<p>It's not been very pretty. We were thrown a lifeline with the Google Hangouts app taking over for the absolutely-awful Google Voice app.<p>One of the most frustrating things about GV is that for certain SMS providers, it fails the "is this a USA number test" or "can we SMS to it" test (it's unclear which), thus making it not work with my USA bank accounts, and I can't register for Lyft, for example.<p>I wish they'd fix this, but what I really wish is that they'd make it a real product, make it cost a few bucks a month, and have a team working on it.<p>I was actually quite annoyed by the cheeky little "tee hee it's been 5 years + plus emoji" talking about their total lack of updates (both software, and well, actual communication around the service). It just comes across as contempt for the customer. Doubly so when they then throw everything into confusion at the end of the post by hinting that Hangouts may or may not be the future, and perhaps we should switch back?<p>Are there any good alternatives? What I need is to be able to receive texts from within the USA, be able to access via mobile app and the web, and have voicemail service.
I like how this story has shot up immediately to the top of Hacker News. Google Voice is beloved by its users, but Google hasn't shown love for it for (as they point out) five years. I'm glad to see the update!<p>So that's lovely, though overall the PMs and VPs need to reconcile all the apps with each other. A friend recently bought a Pixel Phone and was lost as to what to use. I mean, I can't blame him...<p>* Phone's generic looking SMS app<p>* Hangouts<p>* Voice<p>* Allo<p>* Duo
Google's never ending iteration of messaging products comes across as schizophrenic. They have no focus, no discipline, no willingness to stick with an existing solution. I actually want them to just leave GV alone since it just works for me and now that they've turned this into a messaging product I know its days are numbered.<p>It's like maybe I'm thinking I should now move away from GV because their executive team has shined their spotlight on it, unearthed a working service and will now exploit it for their own professional benefit, sucking the value out of it to achieve personal career advancements leaving users in the dust once it all falls apart and the next iteration begins.<p>My phone number isn't a product that's ripe for Google-style innovation. I value stability and want to depend on it. I'm really unhappy about all this.
Just to add a counterpoint, I've been using Google Voice for, I think, 7 years. I've never had any issues with it and the lack of updates always felt like "don't fix what isn't broken." It's gotten slowly better and better with the Hangouts app. I never really needed anything more complicated than texts and voice, but the transcribed voicemail is a godsend.
Google didn't "introduce Google Voice" years ago. They bought Grand Central and rebranded the service.<p>If H.R. 460 passes (unlikely), Google may have to become a real telephony provider, with service standards.[1]<p>[1] <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/460/text?r=460" rel="nofollow">https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/460/...</a>
First they pushed me to Hangouts from Voice and now they're telling me Voice will be updated more often and I should switch from Hangouts? Also that one time you tried to get me to switch to Allo?<p>Get your shit together Google.
I wish Google would make up their minds.<p>They kept pushing Hangouts, and right when it was actually somewhat usable and represented a unified interface to messaging, they started abandoning it and trying to fragment the functionality off into separate apps again.<p>I'll continue to use GV, but Google's track record of confusing moves in this space guarantees I will always keep it as a separate number. It's still very useful like that, since it allows me to text and call from any device or service.
The killer feature I still keep Google Voice around for is transcription of voicemail sent to your inbox, even for direct calls to your cell (non GV #).<p>I stopped giving out my GV number, but you can set up your Verizon cell phone to use Google Voice as your voice mail service, and I love getting transcriptions to my email inbox of missed phone calls!<p>The app update is welcome, as you still have to use the app to listen to the voice message on the rare occasion when the transcription didn't pick it up.
"One number for life" ... unless of course you want to use our other service, Google Fi, in which case you will be forced to relinquish it. No improvements on that small problem, it seems.
I'm really happy they're showing Google Voice some love.<p>It's certainly been neglected over the years, but despite that I've stuck with it (all the way since the GrandCentral days) because the alternative is so much worse. I've changed phone providers numerous times and also travel internationally: the fact that each of these moves would've otherwise required either complex number porting or letting people know about my new number is enough to make me put up with Google Voice's inadequacies. Plus, I love being able to manage SMS from my computer, just like it's another inbox.<p>I hope they're serious about maintaining and updating GV going forward. It's conceptually essential.
Oh great, announce the fucking update that may or may not come this week. They already leaked a banner some weeks ago by accident that linked nowhere. Meanwhile I'm pulling in the 6th update in two months on T-Mobile DIGITS, which will hopefully be the service to replace Google Voice. Oh, and when DIGITS has bugs I can pick up the phone and speak to a person, get it assigned and fixed.<p>It's been around 3 years since Google started to scare all its users into thinking Voice would be shut down or merged with another service.<p>I need a working commercial solution and I don't mind paying for it. I'm sick of Google halfassing every product they work on that isn't Search or AdWords.
My main number is in Google Voice, and has been since 2010. I've lived every day in fear that they would 'spring clean' the product, like they did for Google Reader.<p>I'm just happy to see a commitment to the product, and to future updates. There really isn't anything else like it out there. I love it.
Long time coming! I use Google voice very often to make international calls (I was a Grand Central subscriber before Google acquired them). Their iOS app was just a design nightmare (ios 6 UI aesthetics). Functionality of the app was also limited. Setting section of the app was just passive, you can't change much and you have to login ona desktop version.<p>I am not going to lie but as a Google Voice customer for a long time, I am very disappointed with this update. It is just a design change and I hope they will roll out several new features slowly.<p>For example I still would like them to add a feature where I can add credit to my Google Voice account through the phone app.<p>Among the top three features they have listed as new in the blog post, I feel like that those functionalities already exist on the current iOs app. Lets see.<p>1: Easily check messages, calls and voicemail(s)<p>Already there. Using the same top left corner main menu.<p>2: Keep in touch with group messages<p>This already exists as well. You can start message threads with multiple people. Except the media support I guess.<p>3: Save time with transcribed voicemail<p>This feature is already available. In current version, go to Menu -> Voicemail and you will see transcribed messages in your inbox.<p>I am honestly very confused if this just a teaser in to what is about to become a major project within Google or just a marketing team being busy.
As a current Fi user and former Voice user, I'm still unclear on the relationship between the two. Hangouts for Mac still rings when I get a phone call, but I can't answer the call.
I am glad that I am not the only person that saw this headline and thought "OH NO" they remembered GV is still running. Updates on older services seem to be the kiss of death at Google. Lets spend a little money on an update, if it doesn't grow like (insert cool new thing) kill it.<p>Internal investment in any established Google service seems to be a liability not a benefit, when all of a sudden the balance sheet is worse.
Why didn't they just improve Hangouts? I don't know anyone that uses Allo and as far as I know there's no desktop client. I linked Voice to Hangouts so I could get all of my messages in one app on both my phone and within gmail. Now it seems like they want me to split everything up between 3 apps (Voice for SMS, Allo for chat on mobile, and Hangouts for chat on my computer) that fewer and fewer people are using.<p>Why on earth didn't they just improve Hangouts?
Can we just get them to stop screwing with all the different services? I have tried for years to use Google apps as my main communication routes, but their reliability is a joke.<p>My wife just texted me, "Hey, I got two calls today that went straight to voicemail?" I switched her to google voice a month ago, and it generally works. Stuff like this, the syncing issues with their messenger platforms, delayed or randomly missed messages, are just not acceptable.
There has always been a lot of uncertainty over the future of Google Voice, given the lack of updates. While this does give reassurance that the project is still alive, it puts another nail in the Hangouts coffin. It was widely assumed Hangouts would subsume Google Voice, but now that looks very unlikely.
> If you currently use Hangouts for your Google Voice communication, there’s no need to change to the new apps, but you might want to try them out as we continue to bring new improvements.<p>Oh dear. And here I thought that Voice was just abandoned.
Google has kinda proven themselves untrustworthy when it comes to relying on their services; sometimes, they just kill products off. That'd really suck for a phone number.<p>Nonetheless, I find Google Voice so valuable that I overlooked the potential hassle of it going away. It's just amazingly convenient to get my texts on my computer, tablet, and phone. It's so nice to get voicemails transcribed and in my inbox...I hate making phone calls and I hate listening to voicemail.<p>So, for all of Google's long neglect of the product, I don't know of anything as good, even among products that cost money. So, I'm not gonna trash talk them now, after they've finally done an update and exhibited some evidence that the product has a future. I'm just glad they seem to plan to keep it alive.<p>And, for all of Google's neglect of the product, it is still the Google product I recommend more than any other (I think). I may use GMail/Inbox more often, and I may interact with more people via Docs/Drive, but so few people know about Google Voice that I end up recommending it a lot more than anything else.
So in the brand new blog post, they link to this page: <a href="https://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html</a><p>When you click around, you get to see icons and screenshots from a bygone era
Google Voice is GREAT for non-profits. For my son's Cub Scout Pack and my kids' soccer club I paid the money to get permanent numbers for them both.<p>Now they each have a permanent number that goes just to voicemail. The messages are transcribed, sent to a gmail account set up for just that number and then forwarded to the people that need to receive it.<p>Personally, I have a lot less trust in any organization that won't put a phone number on their website. But I also understand why people aren't anxious to give out their own cell or home phones.<p>PS: It was $20 for one (because I transferred a number) and $30 for the other (because I requested a second number). The gmail accounts are free. It takes some knowledge to make this happen but it's a much better deal than $9.95/month to a voicemail provider.
Google Voice has been a life saver to me in more ways than one.<p>I have Sprint, which integrates with Google Voice so I can use my Sprint number on Google Voice, with all my texts and all my calls sitting nicely in Google Voice. I have the Google Voice Chrome extension installed, which allows me to tell my girlfriend I'm still at work whenever she texts me, allowing me to maintain some sort of focus for the next 9 minutes until she texts me again.
I guess I can unlink from hangouts and go back to Google Voice? I've basically stopped using my Google Voice number(but keep it around because people still had that number) because the future seemed so uncertain.
Anyone know of a decent self-hosted alternative? I ported my number to Voice after I moved from the states, but have been frustrated by the lack of support up until now.
I tried running something similar with Twilio and openvbx, but that project seems to have been pretty much abandoned.
I'm very curious to see if Project Fi gets some of these upgrades as well since it currently uses parts of the Google Voice integration, especially the integration into Hangouts.
As a Fi user (and the number was used from Google Voice), still Fi/Google Voice has problem that the phone doesn't ring even the call goes to Voicemail. Phone has no 'missed call' and suddenly voicemail is received.<p>This issue has been addressed a few years ago but still they never give any option to extend ringing time.
What a poor service.
I still use GV, but it's been frustrating. I stuck with the actual voice app as long as I could manage, but Google was making it <i>really</i> difficult to avoid using Hangouts. As in, there were features you wouldn't get if you didn't switch. Post-switch, MMS and group texts mostly work (although it still fails whenever someone tries to send me a phone contact). Prior to the switch, MMS showed up as emails and it was annoying. They worked really hard to make it inconvenient outside of Hangouts.<p>But, of course, the web and phone versions of hangouts have serious UX problems because it's a chat app first and a SMS/MMS app second. Instead of directly searching for people in the messaging, which will give me 2nd-degree contacts I've never spoken with instead of my actual google contacts with phone numbers, I search through the phone call interface and click the SMS button. On the phone, it tries its hardest to hide the SMS functionality behind Hangouts. And of course, Hangouts is less popular since they gutted that product. They need to stop their forced upgrade attempts. And incoming GV phone calls only show up in the Phone app's history, while outgoing only show in Hangouts. Not to mention how utterly difficult it is to search just GV SMS/voicemail history now. It's like they rounded up every stoned-useless intern they could and told them to break the product.<p>Also, I'd much rather they build their feature set around an API than around apps. They've already proven they have no idea on how to manage apps. I'd rather just have an API we can build against and use. Or even just treat GV as a SIP number that we connect to. I could build myself a pretty sweet SMS/VoiceXML gateway app for routing my calls. But depending on Google to not ruin things is kind of a lost cause at this point.<p>Free, carrier-agnostic web SMS should be an international thing, as long as it's not abused. And that ideal is probably one of the main reasons I stick with it.
Am very confused. Only after reading the comments I've realised that you can link Google Voice to Hangouts and answer calls there. Till now I had no idea how to answer calls on iOS as the Google Voice iOS app is of no use. I wish there was a clear strategy and use case for each messaging app available from Google.
Nice - google voice is the one google service I use consistently. One thing that I think could improve it would be a usable / documented API or something like federation with other messenger services - could probably get by with a rate-limited outbound endpoint which starts one of the e-mail conversations you get when using the 'forward to e-mail' option. I wrote myself a google voice app at one point and wasn't able to get something non-hacky working- it feels a little bit like the current service locks one to android / ios, whereas some of their competing messenger services (e.g. messenger / skype / whatsapp) also work on windows platforms- not everyone uses that, but I think it's good to have freedom of choice of hardware.
In the past 4 years, there have been 7 updates to the iOS Google Voice app. As a long-time user (since the Grand Central acquisition), this is very encouraging news.
Did they ever stop blocking certain phone numbers[1]?<p>Since they block a tribal community college, they are on my "not happy" list. I surely hope no recruiter uses Google Voice if this is still true.<p>1) <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2009/10/google-voice-were-not-serving-high-cost-destinations/" rel="nofollow">http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2009/10/google-voice-were...</a>
I've been a Google Voice user since 2009, when it was initially launched. I absolutely love the product. It is perhaps the only Google product, beside Gmail, that I have been using on a daily basis since the past ~8 years. Initially I only used it for its voicemail functionality and later started using it as my secondary phone number and for international calling (Google Voice's international calling pricing is decent).<p>All these years, even though the product has had an outdated UI, I didn't mind using it, since, it has been functional and served it's purpose. Now that Google is starting to invest more resources into Google Voice, my only hope is that they don't kill any of the existing wonderful features. I love the product and it would be awesome if they don't add any kind of "social" aspect to a very functional and useful product.<p>I haven't received the iOS update yet, but, I'm really looking forward to it.
They really blew it. Like many, I used GV cause I didn't want to pay for text messaging back in the day. I also was able to get a good number that spelled out a phrase relating to the profession I'm in.<p>But after all 5 years, no group messaging... seriously. No MMS, went to email in an attachment. Remember back in 2011 there was a month where all my texts received were delayed by hours. When I heard they were concentrating on Hangouts instead I didn't understand why they kept GV around. It should have belonged in their graveyard. Now they're reviving it? Got the unlimited T-Mobile plan, and so many people have free texting now bundled into their plans. I've been using FB Messenger now as my main text program for years.<p>Google blew this, but granted I would have never guessed text messaging would have gotten this big. My bet would have been on Video Calls.
The writing os more like the old google, frlm the top of my mind from the google desktop search click through ten years ago: "read carefully, this is not the normal yadda yadda".<p>I hope hope hope that we can get old google back. I used to be a fanboy back in tje day but they have made a decent effort to get rid of us over the last ten years. For me it has been the breaking of blogger (bad js + redirect to country specific domain), tasteless heavy pushing of Chrome, making Android closed, killing gds, still pretending Europeans are less worth than Americans (actually we never got access to google voice).<p>Theres a lot of stuff that could need old google like social networks (google+ is wonderful but few uses it), communication (I was a walking billboard for Whatsapp, but they sold out to Facebook and Facebook went ahead to confirm all our scepticism as valid) etc etc.
I've been using Google Voice since before it was Google Voice (it was called GrandCentral before Google acquired it). I've been fearing that Google was going to silently kill it constantly because of the lack of attention. Guess this means it's going to stick around for a while longer.
Anyone able to confirm the iOS Google Voice app was updated in 2017?<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-voice/id318698524?&ct=keyword_voice&mt=8" rel="nofollow">https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-voice/id318698524?&ct...</a>
If you'd like to better understand the background behind the new Google Voice apps, check out my G+ post here.<p><a href="https://plus.google.com/+AlexWiesen/posts/EEVjRbbKz65" rel="nofollow">https://plus.google.com/+AlexWiesen/posts/EEVjRbbKz65</a>
You know what this is? This is an attempt to cover their asses for forcing G+ that nobody wanted. I refused to ever signup for Google Plus and was excluded from Hangouts for a longtime and thus even though hangouts supported Google Voice MMS sending and receiving, that could only be done in hangouts which could only be accessed via a G+ account. That restriction was lifted and now they're bringing features they were witholding for G+ signups to GVoice b/c nobody likes G+.<p>Edit update:
This is similar to forcing sign in on maps (via dark ux) and search (for cross device attribution, ie squeezing more $ out of you, not providing a better service).
Great and timely news for me. I have been very disappointed with the iOS apps since upgrading to new high-res devices. The UI, the inability to search message history and the discontinuity of conversations were all pain points that had me in the past week considering whether I would pursue something like twilio + a self-hosted app or just give up on the niceties of web access to all my messages. That, and the fact that Apple now has messaging and call support (albeit only to other Apple devices seems to work for me) means that GV has been losing value and appreciation steadily. Looks like I'll be keeping it around a little longer.
There's someone very high up at Google who believes that Google can disrupt telephony. Fi and the lifeline of Voice are proof of this.<p>The fact that this project got refunded is also a tell that Google finds value in Voice (maybe). The question I'd ask is what value is it that they see? A couple of thoughts:<p>* Move voice users out of Hangouts to reduce users of the monolith.<p>* Test the current user bases' interest in updates - maybe there's something bigger brewing and this update is an experiment to learn about user habits.<p>* Create a pipeline program to covert users to Fi.<p>* Release work done over the holiday vacation that was cheap enough / good enough to release.
Google Voice has been awesome for us with a little Obihai box. I use it every day to check on my mom (who has medical issues) and we have glitches occasionally but they are almost always cleared up by re-dialing.<p>It let us replace our $40/month CenturyLink landline (including taxes and caller ID) with a one-time purchase of the Obihai box ($40 on special) and the $20 porting fee to make the number permanent with Google Voice.<p>Our school district uses automated phone calls. Having Google Voice answer them, transcribe them, and send them to both me and my wife has been awesome.
Over the years, I have sent the GV team various strongly worded reminders of the promises they made me.<p>Personally, I choose to interpret these updates as a their response to me. Finally!<p>Thanks for making good, big G. Keep it up.
Bug: (where do I report this?)
Number A, Number B.
A receives text. "B" is set as my default but I see A's message in my inbox. I reply. The reply is sent from "B".
Am I the only person here who is happy with Google Voice?<p>The whole point of GV has always been to be a free PSTN<->VOIP gateway. That's a very valuable feature by itself. AFAIK, only FreedomPop offer mostly the same functionality for free (though not unlimited). Aside from carrier issues, I haven't had any problems with GV.<p>It just works, it's very useful and it's free. I'm happy with it, and I hope they improve the existing functionality before they add features.
Someone remind me again why Google Voice and Google Hangouts co-exist? I'm sure there was an amazing answer that got lost in the margin of my brain, anyone remember?
Looks like the iOS app is only available inf you're in the US - even if you've already enabled and used google voice on the web (or on a different device).
Oh thank GOD. I live in terror that Google will kill Voice. I _live_ in Voice. I dread that day.<p>Instead, they release updated apps... this is about killing _Hangouts_, which I don't particularly care about. Whew!!<p>Honestly, I would be _ecstatic_ if Google started charging for Voice. $1/month, $12/year seems about right. I want confidence the service is going to be around for years to come.<p>Also, ios10 call integration would be very sweet. Hopefully this new update has it.
Wow, what a shocker! I used GV for _years_ as my primary number, but had to stop recently because the apps were so terrible.<p>Something else I hope they've fixed: many web sites could not send SMS to GV numbers. For example my Chase bank account. I could never get a text code to login with a new device, so had to use email to verify instead. I experienced probably a dozen services that could not send to GV.<p>Refresh looks great! Can't wait to try it out.
Has anyone been migrated to the new web version? I still see the old interface and it looks like the Indian Play Store hasn't received the new app either.
The fear that Google Voice would be cancelled soon has always been in me. (There apps hadn't been updated for a long time).<p>This news is a relief.
I'm actually surprised at the dearth of updates. The cleaner interface is nice for sure, and transcription in Spanish is great (yay internationalization!), but the post is underwhelming overall. There's just vague messaging about future updates. Was hoping for more of a splash (and better app store availability, based on some comments here).
If someone from Google is reading this: there's a need for a business version, that has paid features: multiple lines with a single number ( "press 1 to talk to billing, press 2 to talk to support"), multiple numbers tied to one account, etc.
I have the old google voice app as well as a google voice number, granted MMS didnt work but other features such as spam filtering is the reason I adopted for official use. I routed 2 numbers to each (landline) account and havent looked back
Facebook has recently added audio options. Google will invest more in voice and audio. It is clearly, for me, that we will see something great happen in audio as we saw before in video and photo
What does this mean for Fi users?
I guess someone inside Google must have a soft spot for Voice, neglecting an app for 5 years and then resurrecting it is very unGoogly.
Maybe now they'll address the Takeout format to return a sane, digestible form of GV data, rather than the frequently-broken HTML form that it currently returns.
It looks like Hangouts can make free calls, but GV cannot. At least according to their respective descriptions in the Play store. That seems like a major downgrade.
As part of this they're touting much-improved transcription. Does anyone know if the the transcription system used for this is available for developers?
An extremely relevant (and timely) XKCD about having too many phone numbers: <a href="https://xkcd.com/1789/" rel="nofollow">https://xkcd.com/1789/</a>
The guy on this page is, "Jan Jedrzejowicz." I'm going to hit him up on LinkedIn and ask him if he can ask his superiors about their focus or lack thereof on GV's future. And if they're not willing to give a detailed answer, then whether they believe their GV customers are entitled to one...
It's nice to see GV isn't dead (yet), but unless I can make it my default SMS app it's pointless - so I am keeping my GV number integrated into hangouts.