Probably not. I honestly think Google has forgotten they own it. Which is probably a good thing, because otherwise they might kill it, especially with their track record. And that they don’t make any money on it.
Not at all.
At minimum GV should get integrated into Google Messages so I can use GV and SIM card phone numbers in 1 app with RCS support and everything.
That's not what you suggested, you suggested Google should have "left it integrated with hangouts", which was ended. It was clearly removed from hangouts so they wouldn't have to shut down GV..
Also, the integration with Messages is a not really realistic. Messages is an SMS app, it provides a UI for carrier messaaging. Google Voice is a completely different type of service, it's not a cell carrier. Also keep in mind, Google Voice doesn't just support Android, they also support iOS, so thay can't have a solution that's solely tied to Messages.
Arguably, you want Messages to provide support for "VoIP" services. This is something that Dialer had until a couple years ago (you could dial using a SIP address). However there is no SMS equivalent to SIP, so first they'd have to invent an industry standard protocol and get everyone to agree on it.
Also you highlight you want "one app" but right now, you don't have that for your carrier... you need Dialer for voice, and Messages for RCS/SMS.
They should have just kept the flawless app known as hangouts where you can have hangouts, GV, & text messages all in 1 thread it was perfection.
Never said solely integrated in messages. Why couldn't it be an option. Like when you had the option to use hangouts or voice app. Same thing.
You're adding paragraphs when only a sentence is needed.
Nobody cares about ISheep phones.
Perhaps.
I dunno I used hangouts for a lot of years it was nice.
I kinda just wanna have better use for GV, its lacking a lot nowadays. I may just port my number to my carrier.
I can only wish. I would even consider paying a small fee for it (under $100 a year) if they offered:
Full RCS Support
Ability to send images of any size (or auto-resize)
No longer have google voice numbers flagged and rejected when signing up for banking and other services.
As someone who travels outside the US, I love that google voice works anywhere I go and I can continue seamless text conversations when I switch to a local SIM card so I can use affordable and abundant high speed data.
I would even switch if there was another service like this.
I also blame the carriers, as there's no reason they can't offer these services directly.
Check out Tello's unlimited talk and text plan for $8. It's a real SIM card (or esim if you prefer) and works through "backup calling" using another SIMs data connection when abroad.
My assumption here is if you're using google voice abroad you have at least a data connection.
It has RCS because it's a real number of course and also has unlimited talk and text INTERNATIONALLY. Yes unlimited talk and text to almost every country.
I know I'm being cheap at this point but I pay $0 for my phone plan (using GV + free data sim) and don't use texting. I'd like crystal clear calling but Tello doesn't yet have cellular talk and text in Canada yet (backup calling for abroad still works but then I'm basically back to GV-quality anyway, so why pay for it)
I enjoyed being able to move a call to another device, that was a big loss for me. For instance, if I take a call on one of my landline handsets, but the call is going to be longer than anticipated, I could move it to a device with my nice bluetooth headphones.
I've had Google Voice (GV) since the GrandCentral days.
For me, GV has evolved over the years, in some cases for better, in some cases for worse.
Here's a post on how I use it today, maybe some points will resonate:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Googlevoice/comments/uzy7ub/comment/iafavic/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Best wishes.
No. They haven't given it new features in a while. They know the messaging isn't on par with actual text messaging, which for me holds Google voice back. If they really wanted to make it stellar, they'd make the messaging similar to telegram or WhatsApp but still using the sms/mms/rcs framework. And it may not be doable.
In that regard, Google voice is almost obsolete. Maybe they could integrate Google voice numbers into using the Messages app (native text messaging app on android). Allow users to text with their Google voice number AND Sim number via the messages app.
Google Voice used to have lots of cool features. In fact, when I started using it many years ago, you didn't even have to use the Voice app. It just ran in the background. Voice was fully integrated with the native apps on the phone. You could use whatever messaging app you wanted and send or receive both carrier texts or GV texts. The messages were separated by tags. When you did an SMS save, it saved all the GV texts too. When this feature was removed, they came out with Hangouts. We loved Hangouts for one simple reason, every interaction with a person was inline. No more jumping between text, calls, and voicemail. There are literally too many features to mention that are no longer available. Does anyone really know what JSON is. Well, that's what you get if you do a Google Takeout to save your GV data. You will need to be a software engineer or have a Dick Tracey decoder to do anything with it.
This is from Wikipedia:
GrandCentral, founded in 2005 by Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet with funding by [Minor Ventures](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_Ventures), was acquired by [Google](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google) on July 2, 2007, for US$95 million in a transaction led by [Wesley Chan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Chan). Although GrandCentral users were able to continue to use the service after the purchase, new users were not accepted, and Google made no public statements about their plans for the service.[^(\[4\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice#cite_note-pogue22-4) On March 11, 2009, the management of the service revealed that the team had been working on it throughout that period, apparently in secret,[^(\[4\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice#cite_note-pogue22-4) and that it was being rebranded "Google Voice".[^(\[18\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice#cite_note-Googlevoiceblog-18) It was to keep most of the functionality originally offered in GrandCentral and add new features. Google hired a telecom design consultant, [Peter Bouchard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Telephone); he was brought on to make modifications and help relaunch the service.[^(\[19\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice#cite_note-19)[^(\[20\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice#cite_note-20) The service was launched by [Google](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google)[^(\[21\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice#cite_note-21) on March 11, 2009. A [*Wired*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wired_(magazine)) blog post quoted a figure of 3.5 million users in 2013.[^(\[22\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice#cite_note-wired-22)
Google didn't want Grand Central as a company, they wanted their users and the potential for millions more. We got bought!
Over the years, Google has removed more and more features. They call it deprecation. Google has no intention to add anything to GV. Expect that it will get worse and worse as the years go by.
Regardless of what people think, Google is not a software company. They are an advertising company. The main product Google sells is you. You are the product. As with most companies, they are continually looking for ways to increase profits. One way to increase profits is to reduce cost through deprecation.
Todays GV is nothing like the original.
i would LOVE if they would go back to allowing android to see voice as a choice for receiving text messages. i hate that only our carrier numbers can receive texts from so many sources, so we have to give out a number we otherwise never do, and can't coordinate those callers with our voice contacts. i think google did this because they basically became a carrier, & voice users were/are too carrier-agnostic...now they're introducing a google "messages" app which will only work with the phone's official carrier & doesn't integrate with voice. i HOPE this doesn't mean what it kind of seems like...anyone remember Reader? we should probably all be backing up our voice data before the "do no evil" crowd
lets their horns 'n tail out, again. to google we are lab-rats used for cash-cow farming, & nothing more.
new features??!! Google has killed Hangouts, removed the great features they had, at this point we should be happy Voice isn't killed and still works.
Google doesnt care about its users.
Holy shit! This was 5 years ago?! I remember when this happened and I got excited that we might get some real support. Time flies!
Also used it since Grand Central.
It's a specific product so there has to be a dedicated team. I've wondered how big that team is and what do they do day to day. My primary number dates back to Grand Central and I have 2 others that I keep alive for testing things or potentially sketch businesses.
Tried to sign up the other day and there were no phone numbers available in dozens of zip codes I tried 🤷 so I guess features don't matter until they fix that. I regret giving up my number years ago
Been using GV for about 13 years. Almost switched due to the lack of MMS, but it was added. Now, I’ve been hoping for RCS. Once iOS goes release with RCS, I’ll be porting out of GV to my carrier.
Google Voice is partially a paid product (for companies anyway, thru Google Workspace) and likely due to that, it does receive maintanence.
Looking at [https://9to5google.com/guides/google-voice/](https://9to5google.com/guides/google-voice/) I see a few changes during 2023 for example. Including an Android app UI update for "Material You". And in 2022 they added Wifi/Mobile mid-call switching, plus enterprise users have been getting new features such as "Google Voice SIP Link".
I don't expect any real changes to the consumer side but they do keep things running. RCS for example, I don't expect to see on Google Voice before hell freezing over.
This question gets asked atleast once per week. I guess there's too many of us who are fine with how it is now and don't complain enough for any updates. It's a free service to make calls and send basic SMS and it's perfect at what it does.
I also would be willing to pay a subscription for the service to see it sustained and improved. And I'm a cheapskate.
But that company is so good at getting bored and killing products. From what I understand, Google lets developers choose interesting new projects fairly easily. So they get bored and move on. So something like Google Voice just goes into maintenance mode.
They will eventually add new features. Google Voice is a much loved product and it is used by many of Google’s own executives. Write them a note with feature requests, they do take those into consideration.
That's a denial of reality.
Maybe you've never looked at Google's community threads for the past fifteen years! People have made many requests and reported confusing design features for all of that decade and a half. Has the service changed in any significant way in years? Oh of course I forgot the DID make changes-- by removing features.
No.
Probably not. I honestly think Google has forgotten they own it. Which is probably a good thing, because otherwise they might kill it, especially with their track record. And that they don’t make any money on it.
I think its like google apps for your domain, its probably too much of a legal liability to get rid of since so many people are tied to it.
It’s probably due to the fact they’re real phone numbers and they’d have to deal with the FCC.
Lol they're sitting back, raking in the data on millions
They should've just left it integrated with Hangouts and let us have conversations grouped all together. They ruin stuff constantly..
I concur and then they drop support for amzing software… and it ends up biting them in the arse
Are you suggesting GV should have been shut down along with Hangouts?
Not at all. At minimum GV should get integrated into Google Messages so I can use GV and SIM card phone numbers in 1 app with RCS support and everything.
That's not what you suggested, you suggested Google should have "left it integrated with hangouts", which was ended. It was clearly removed from hangouts so they wouldn't have to shut down GV.. Also, the integration with Messages is a not really realistic. Messages is an SMS app, it provides a UI for carrier messaaging. Google Voice is a completely different type of service, it's not a cell carrier. Also keep in mind, Google Voice doesn't just support Android, they also support iOS, so thay can't have a solution that's solely tied to Messages. Arguably, you want Messages to provide support for "VoIP" services. This is something that Dialer had until a couple years ago (you could dial using a SIP address). However there is no SMS equivalent to SIP, so first they'd have to invent an industry standard protocol and get everyone to agree on it. Also you highlight you want "one app" but right now, you don't have that for your carrier... you need Dialer for voice, and Messages for RCS/SMS.
They should have just kept the flawless app known as hangouts where you can have hangouts, GV, & text messages all in 1 thread it was perfection. Never said solely integrated in messages. Why couldn't it be an option. Like when you had the option to use hangouts or voice app. Same thing. You're adding paragraphs when only a sentence is needed. Nobody cares about ISheep phones.
>flawless app known as hangouts Heh, ok you got me, I genuinely thought your post was serious.
Perhaps. I dunno I used hangouts for a lot of years it was nice. I kinda just wanna have better use for GV, its lacking a lot nowadays. I may just port my number to my carrier.
with hangouts though we couldn't see our messages
Cannot recall anything like that. It worked perfectly until they started stripping features and then it was gone.
the message history didn't show up on [voice.google.com](http://voice.google.com) website if i am not mistaken.
I'm still waiting the ability to send videos via mms 😂
With MMS it'll be a blurry mess anyway.
indeed it's old technology now.. but i'm just making a point that old technology isn't even here yet :)
I can only wish. I would even consider paying a small fee for it (under $100 a year) if they offered: Full RCS Support Ability to send images of any size (or auto-resize) No longer have google voice numbers flagged and rejected when signing up for banking and other services. As someone who travels outside the US, I love that google voice works anywhere I go and I can continue seamless text conversations when I switch to a local SIM card so I can use affordable and abundant high speed data. I would even switch if there was another service like this. I also blame the carriers, as there's no reason they can't offer these services directly.
Check out Tello's unlimited talk and text plan for $8. It's a real SIM card (or esim if you prefer) and works through "backup calling" using another SIMs data connection when abroad. My assumption here is if you're using google voice abroad you have at least a data connection. It has RCS because it's a real number of course and also has unlimited talk and text INTERNATIONALLY. Yes unlimited talk and text to almost every country. I know I'm being cheap at this point but I pay $0 for my phone plan (using GV + free data sim) and don't use texting. I'd like crystal clear calling but Tello doesn't yet have cellular talk and text in Canada yet (backup calling for abroad still works but then I'm basically back to GV-quality anyway, so why pay for it)
t-mobile is better with truly unlimited data
Which plan is comparable to Tello's $8 one?
I enjoyed being able to move a call to another device, that was a big loss for me. For instance, if I take a call on one of my landline handsets, but the call is going to be longer than anticipated, I could move it to a device with my nice bluetooth headphones.
I've had Google Voice (GV) since the GrandCentral days. For me, GV has evolved over the years, in some cases for better, in some cases for worse. Here's a post on how I use it today, maybe some points will resonate: https://www.reddit.com/r/Googlevoice/comments/uzy7ub/comment/iafavic/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 Best wishes.
Just hope they don't shut it down.
Amen.
No
No. They haven't given it new features in a while. They know the messaging isn't on par with actual text messaging, which for me holds Google voice back. If they really wanted to make it stellar, they'd make the messaging similar to telegram or WhatsApp but still using the sms/mms/rcs framework. And it may not be doable. In that regard, Google voice is almost obsolete. Maybe they could integrate Google voice numbers into using the Messages app (native text messaging app on android). Allow users to text with their Google voice number AND Sim number via the messages app.
RCS is even coming (if not already there) to iMessage so Apple isn't douchy and translating things to 1995 tech. GVoice can do better.
They won't though. At best I see GV being merged into Messages somehow. GV does the basics. But I don't see them putting e effort into it.
They just n the need to copy pixel by pixel feature by feature iMessage in addition to its current structure and its biblical
What features should they add and how much should they charge for them? Be careful what you wish for, free is good for me.
Google Voice used to have lots of cool features. In fact, when I started using it many years ago, you didn't even have to use the Voice app. It just ran in the background. Voice was fully integrated with the native apps on the phone. You could use whatever messaging app you wanted and send or receive both carrier texts or GV texts. The messages were separated by tags. When you did an SMS save, it saved all the GV texts too. When this feature was removed, they came out with Hangouts. We loved Hangouts for one simple reason, every interaction with a person was inline. No more jumping between text, calls, and voicemail. There are literally too many features to mention that are no longer available. Does anyone really know what JSON is. Well, that's what you get if you do a Google Takeout to save your GV data. You will need to be a software engineer or have a Dick Tracey decoder to do anything with it. This is from Wikipedia: GrandCentral, founded in 2005 by Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet with funding by [Minor Ventures](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_Ventures), was acquired by [Google](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google) on July 2, 2007, for US$95 million in a transaction led by [Wesley Chan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Chan). Although GrandCentral users were able to continue to use the service after the purchase, new users were not accepted, and Google made no public statements about their plans for the service.[^(\[4\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice#cite_note-pogue22-4) On March 11, 2009, the management of the service revealed that the team had been working on it throughout that period, apparently in secret,[^(\[4\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice#cite_note-pogue22-4) and that it was being rebranded "Google Voice".[^(\[18\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice#cite_note-Googlevoiceblog-18) It was to keep most of the functionality originally offered in GrandCentral and add new features. Google hired a telecom design consultant, [Peter Bouchard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Telephone); he was brought on to make modifications and help relaunch the service.[^(\[19\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice#cite_note-19)[^(\[20\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice#cite_note-20) The service was launched by [Google](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google)[^(\[21\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice#cite_note-21) on March 11, 2009. A [*Wired*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wired_(magazine)) blog post quoted a figure of 3.5 million users in 2013.[^(\[22\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice#cite_note-wired-22) Google didn't want Grand Central as a company, they wanted their users and the potential for millions more. We got bought! Over the years, Google has removed more and more features. They call it deprecation. Google has no intention to add anything to GV. Expect that it will get worse and worse as the years go by. Regardless of what people think, Google is not a software company. They are an advertising company. The main product Google sells is you. You are the product. As with most companies, they are continually looking for ways to increase profits. One way to increase profits is to reduce cost through deprecation. Todays GV is nothing like the original.
Add Clipboard support for browser use of GV! Sometimes I curse this crap out loud.
I'm honestly amazed they haven't discontinued it yet. I hope I did not just jinx us all.
Nope, more likely to be killed at this point
Scammers would be devastated. 😂
Based on what knowledge?
It’s Google. What haven’t they killed in the last 5 years?
No
Nope
all I want is text message scheduling!!
i would LOVE if they would go back to allowing android to see voice as a choice for receiving text messages. i hate that only our carrier numbers can receive texts from so many sources, so we have to give out a number we otherwise never do, and can't coordinate those callers with our voice contacts. i think google did this because they basically became a carrier, & voice users were/are too carrier-agnostic...now they're introducing a google "messages" app which will only work with the phone's official carrier & doesn't integrate with voice. i HOPE this doesn't mean what it kind of seems like...anyone remember Reader? we should probably all be backing up our voice data before the "do no evil" crowd lets their horns 'n tail out, again. to google we are lab-rats used for cash-cow farming, & nothing more.
new features??!! Google has killed Hangouts, removed the great features they had, at this point we should be happy Voice isn't killed and still works. Google doesnt care about its users.
Native IOS support, i'd pay for that.
They're adding RCS right, Mac I mean? Google Voice (who created it) nope. It's frustrating because I love my GVoice.
[удалено]
When was there ever a huge update...
[удалено]
Holy shit! This was 5 years ago?! I remember when this happened and I got excited that we might get some real support. Time flies! Also used it since Grand Central.
It's a specific product so there has to be a dedicated team. I've wondered how big that team is and what do they do day to day. My primary number dates back to Grand Central and I have 2 others that I keep alive for testing things or potentially sketch businesses.
GV gets updates regularly. They're just not consumer focused. SipLink was a big recent one.
I bet it is a lot smaller than people assume it is. Maybe one or two people at most.
Maybe the paid GV but not likely for the Free version. That's if Google doesn't get rid of it altogether.
I keep getting spam calls, so even something Google is good at like spam blocking could be better.
No. They’ll probably kill it like most of their other cool things in the past.
Tried to sign up the other day and there were no phone numbers available in dozens of zip codes I tried 🤷 so I guess features don't matter until they fix that. I regret giving up my number years ago
Been using GV for about 13 years. Almost switched due to the lack of MMS, but it was added. Now, I’ve been hoping for RCS. Once iOS goes release with RCS, I’ll be porting out of GV to my carrier.
it works fine for me
Yea no they won't. Which is unfortunate. But as long as it still works I'll use it.
No. I'll be very surprised if it's still around in 2 years.
Google Voice is partially a paid product (for companies anyway, thru Google Workspace) and likely due to that, it does receive maintanence. Looking at [https://9to5google.com/guides/google-voice/](https://9to5google.com/guides/google-voice/) I see a few changes during 2023 for example. Including an Android app UI update for "Material You". And in 2022 they added Wifi/Mobile mid-call switching, plus enterprise users have been getting new features such as "Google Voice SIP Link". I don't expect any real changes to the consumer side but they do keep things running. RCS for example, I don't expect to see on Google Voice before hell freezing over.
This question gets asked atleast once per week. I guess there's too many of us who are fine with how it is now and don't complain enough for any updates. It's a free service to make calls and send basic SMS and it's perfect at what it does.
no. I’m actually surprised it’s still around. I imagine it will be discontinued within the next year or two at max.
I also would be willing to pay a subscription for the service to see it sustained and improved. And I'm a cheapskate. But that company is so good at getting bored and killing products. From what I understand, Google lets developers choose interesting new projects fairly easily. So they get bored and move on. So something like Google Voice just goes into maintenance mode.
They will eventually add new features. Google Voice is a much loved product and it is used by many of Google’s own executives. Write them a note with feature requests, they do take those into consideration.
That's a denial of reality. Maybe you've never looked at Google's community threads for the past fifteen years! People have made many requests and reported confusing design features for all of that decade and a half. Has the service changed in any significant way in years? Oh of course I forgot the DID make changes-- by removing features.