I seem to remember just about 4 years ago when I logged into Google Voice and it said that Google Voice was moving into Google Hangouts.<p><a href="https://images.techhive.com/images/article/2014/09/google-voice-hangouts-100413765-large.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://images.techhive.com/images/article/2014/09/google-vo...</a><p>Why does it feel like no other software company has these sort of branding issues?
Been with Google Voice since it was Grand Central. It's been a wild ride and I'm waiting for Google to kill it entirely. Hangouts was so close. Had SMS and everything. Was only a few features away from becoming a pseudo iMessage for android, then in typical fashion they have gone and done all of this.
From what I understand, this change affects me personally in a negative way; it will prevent me from making Google Voice calls on my phone.<p>I use Google Voice with a US-based number that I registered while I lived in the US. I've since moved temporarily to Taiwan and switched to a Taiwanese SIM. Recently, my Google Voice prompted me to re-verify my US-based number (which I no longer have access to) and eventually disassociated it with my account when I didn't do so. So now I do not have a "real" US mobile phone number associated with my account. I cannot associate my Taiwanese number because the country code must match my Google Voice number.<p>The Google Voice app does not let you make phone calls if you do not have a real phone number registered in your account. I've been using the Hangouts Dialer app to make calls, which doesn't have this requirement. But, per this announcement, it is going away. So after this I'll have no economical way to make calls to the US on my phone (calling via the Taiwanese SIM is expensive). I think I'll work around the problem by associating one of my parents' numbers with my account (any number will do, it's mainly an anti-fraud measure), but it would be great if I didn't have to jump through that hoop.
At this point, I'm just waiting for Google Voice to be axed.<p>I've used it for text/call verification stuff and anything where I don't think its necessary to give my primary number for.<p>Might get a burner phone when they do in that case.
I use Google voice as my primary number, and have done so for many years.<p>A few years ago they pushed me hard to "transition" to Hangouts. It was a one way transition, ie. I couldn't undo it if I didn't like it. I got lazy and never did it.<p>Now I'm glad I didn't, because apparently I'd be moving back anyway!<p>But the GVoice app and experience is still awful on iPhone. The only reason I'm still on it is for the spam protection, but even that isn't so good anymore and apparently the built in iPhone one is pretty good now.
Net result of this action for most people: When traveling internationally, I would use this feature to call family in the US - for free (it only uses data). Now I can't do this anymore, as it will default to using cell networks (not data).<p>>New telecommunications regulations are being introduced in the EU and U.S. beginning in 2021. To comply with these new regulations, we need to remove the call phones feature in Hangouts. [1]<p>It appears that the change is due to new regulations?<p>[1]: <a href="https://blog.google/products/workspace/latest-google-hangouts-and-upgrade-google-chat/#jump-content:~:text=Changes%20to%20Hangouts%20with%20Google%20Voice" rel="nofollow">https://blog.google/products/workspace/latest-google-hangout...</a>
I thought that already happened about a year ago. When I used to dial from voice.google.com it would open a hangouts window. About a year ago they streamlined this to staying within Google Voice, so this announcement seems surprising.
While it is true that Google Voice now has a built-in dialer, I have found that the call quality is significantly worse than with Hangouts. Has anyone else noticed this?
>Next year, Chat will become available as a free service—both in the integrated experience in Gmail and the Chat standalone app.<p>It was great when Chat [EDIT: This was Google Talk, I think.] was integrated within gmail, both as a ui, and the fact that chat messages were mixed-in with your regular emails, and available for searching. I don't remember when this was removed, but I haven't used it 10+ years. Somehow I doubt the new Chat will work the way it used to, but I hope so.<p>EDIT 2 (off topic): I tried to look at Google Chat, but first Google wanted me to answer some survey questions, so I agreed to. There's no (apparent) way to navigate the survey questions or revise your replies. I clicked through one question accidentally without answering it. For another question, I mistakenly answered the opposite of what I meant to. Garbage-in, garbage-out.<p>EDIT 3: After clicking "Get Started" in Google Chat, it appears this is only for groups a la Slack. Why can't I just IM other people with gmail addresses in my address book?
I was a little concerned when I saw this headline, since I still use Hangouts for SMS and I've been ignoring the notification that it's going away. But unless I'm missing something, it looks like my usage is covered by Meet and the newer messages app, which I'm hoping has better UX, particularly around search.<p>Is anything really being lost here?
Technically it's already gone, inside the hangout tab it just says, "Call phones feature is not available." with a link to <a href="https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/3205646" rel="nofollow">https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/3205646</a>
Well, that blows. When I lived in a basement, cellular signal was nonexistent, and the only way I could reliably call anyone was by getting a Google Voice number and using the Hangouts Dialer app on my android phone to make the call over WiFi.<p>These days I've got most of my family using Signal, which can also call over WiFi.
Google Voice android app doesn't work without giving the permission to "make and manage phone calls". I've used hangouts Voice integration for years and it never needed that permission. I wonder what changed?
The feature in google hangouts I like the most that for a long time was really only a feature I could get in google hangouts is anyone or everyone in a hangout can share their screen. Only recently and I'm not sure exactly how in zoom you can do this too or so i've been told... but this really was the big feature in hangouts... also I must be an unusual person but I just keep my work email (gmail ) in a pinned tab always and it's just an easy place to chat with co-workers and also place test phone calls while hacking on twilio... makes me sad this might be going away :)
So if I read this correctly, it's just losing the idea of placing plain phone calls via Google Hangouts. Google Hangouts also has a video chat feature, and presumably that's still enabled?
I wish they would integrate GV with Google Messages so that I could text from just Google Messages no matter if I'm using GV or my carrier number.
Someone should teach Google management about the Lindy Effect, and how most people use it as a barometer for whether or not to take something seriously.
I've grown accustomed to being able to text people from my computer with weechat/bitlbee/libpurple. Is anyone aware of any ways to continue doing this type of thing when the google voice/hangouts integration stops working?<p>I specifically like being able to access my messages in a terminal/ncurses-style gui, and being able to log them locally.
The Google Voice dialer sucks. If you're not on Wi-Fi it won't call over data. Maybe this would have been a sensible restriction 10 years ago but now it's totally silly. I used the Hangouts dialer all the time when travelling internationally to avoid ludicrous international call fees.
This headline wraps on mobile after Voice, and my heart skipped a beat.<p>I still have a fair number of physical business cards left. It’s only a matter of time before the Google cancel machine renders them useless. Hopefully I run out before then.<p>My personal card, in contrast, doesn’t have a phone number on it at all, just email.
Forcing me to sign into "messages" for voice calling is bad for my personal security. Some sites still only provide 2 factor via SMS. I don't want to be forced to receive them on my computer, when my phone is the 2 factor device.<p>Don't like this change one bit.
Will not be happy if they ever shut down Google Voice. It's my spam and online dating phone number. Like if we didnt work out you are like spam to me.. to be deleted/ignored lol
Google is dysfunctional. Their promo incentives favor short-term thinking.<p>The original founders are gone.<p>The only reason they're alive is their ad/search moat. It's a walking IBM/Oracle, otherwise.<p>Don't forget when it leaked a year or so ago that even Google Cloud Platform is on their chopping block if they don't meet targets.<p>I wouldn't trust this company with anything. Photos, music, youtube videos, mail. They do not care.
This is dumb. Every time you do one of these migrations you lose a non-trivial percentage of your users. I legit no longer know which Google chat program I'm supposed to use <i>on my iPhone</i> anymore. It's even worse on Android. It'd cost them very little to "componentize" voice calling feature and reduce maintenance cost that way by simply using the same component in both programs. But, any large organization is doomed to ship its org chart, which is what I suspect is happening here. Again.