Why my friends hate Google Voice

Sounds like Google Voice isn't the problem, so much as her switching between various phones a lot. If she wasn't, they'd have, at most, two numbers to contend with: the GV number, and the carrier number.

Her friends don't hate Google Voice, they hate that she doesn't use it enough.<p>Google Voice is the exact solution to her problem, but since she only SOMETIMES uses it for outgoing calls and texts, it completely loses its purpose. This she blames on the tediousness of using the GV app. Sorry but at the moment that's the price you have to pay if you want to test 10 smartphones and be able to be reached on one number (for free!).

I've used GV with my iPhone 4, HTC EVO 4G and HTC Hero. Also with SkypeIn/Out numbers.<p>Mirrors my experience, especially on iPhone: freezes often, messages can be delayed, unreliable voice service, voicemail transcription is rarely accurate. As soon as there is a problem and I have to switch to my carrier number, and confusion exists again.<p>I also run into the problem stcredzero describes; showing up as "Unknown", forcing me to move back to carrier number.<p>In short the biggest benefit I get from GV is actually the Chrome extension where I can send SMS messages very quickly and play voicemails (the transcription is usually useless) - really wish Apple would acknowledge that tying your phone to a browser is really powerful.<p>I've switched to giving out my GV number professionally and using my carrier number for close friends and family.<p>That vanity number is just not worth it.<p>Disclaimer: I am not an idiot and I understand how GV works.

My fiance and I write mobile apps together, so we have a pile of iphones and androids, and one Google Voice number that rings them all. It's like a throwback to when a family just had one household line. Except sometimes we're not together so we both have to guess who should answer based on the caller ID.<p>Even worse, all of our text messages go only to my email inbox. Luckily, we get fewer than five a month.<p>It does really annoy our friends, but most have figured it out after two years of this setup. Mostly we just communicate via email and gchat.<p>It is pretty crazy when the phone rings at home though, Gizmo goes off on both our computers, the landline and two extensions start ringing, and the three mobile phones.

Why does it take so long for Google Voice messages to come to your phone? I've waited all the way from 30 minutes to 4 hours to receive one message.

I was lucky to adopt Google Voice when I was coming back to live in the US after a long stint in the UK.<p>I had abandoned my old phone number, and now no one even knows my new Carrier-assigned phone number, I LOVE it because there is never any information that is ONLY available on my phone.<p>For example, if I left my phone somewhere, I can still see all my missed calls and texts.

What does the supply of phone numbers look like?<p>Imagine if Google assigned Google Voice numbers for all of my contacts, even if that person wasn't on Google Voice yet. Then I can program that number into my normal phone to reach that contact. Google gets a call from my phone to that number, and initiates a call from my google voice number to my friend's actual number.<p>Does that make sense?

During the brief period in which I used Google Voice on my Samsung Epic 4G, I noticed poor audio quality.