Comments on: Free Texting With Google Voice

By: Thomas Trumble

Thomas Trumble — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:14:10 +0000

Jo – while you can access Google Voice transcribed voicemail and send texts via their website, on your phone calls and texts are sent via your data plan and access to the Google Voice app requires a data plan. So, yeah you really do need a data plan to use Google Voice.

By: Jo

Jo — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 02:55:57 +0000

Hi,

i’m interested in porting my number to google voice to be able to keep the same number. Would google voice work without a data plan? I want to be able to to keep my old number.

By: Thomas Trumble

Thomas Trumble — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 02:59:10 +0000

Shan – sorry, I haven’t used Google Voice for BlackBerry to make international calls, but based on their website it seems like international calls are “inexpensive,” but not free. http://www.google.com/mobile/voice/

Let me know how it works out in the comments.

By: Shan

Shan — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 16:58:40 +0000

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for the quick reply. I have both google talk and google voice on my blackberry. The google voice is set up so that “This phone’s number:” is set to “Google Talk”.

Before, it was set to my mobile number.

However, I still get a +1 number that my phone calls that is NOT my unique google voice number.

I’m in Hong Kong right now and was hoping to use my phone to make phone calls to the US without the high rates. It doesn’t look like that’s going to be possible.

Is there another area where I can switch settings? Do I need to modify settings on my google talk app?

Thanks again
Shan

By: Thomas Trumble

Thomas Trumble — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 14:38:14 +0000

Shan – that’s correct, you use data rather than minutes. What you may be seeing is your unique Google Voice number. Check to see that Google Voice is configured correctly and let me know if that works for you.

By: Shan

Shan — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 14:02:15 +0000

Hi Thomas,

You said that you could use the Google Voice app to make calls using VOIP like Skype. I thought this meant that the data plan would be used (i.e. an internet connection) rather than minutes, is that correct?

Whenever I make calls using Google Voice, it looks like it calls some 972 area code number using my phone network, not internet/data connectivity.

Or am I missing something?

Thanks!

By: John

John — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:24:07 +0000

Awesome thanks for the fast reply!

By: Thomas Trumble

Thomas Trumble — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:43:57 +0000

John – replies will be from your Google Voice number, not your email address. No confusion AND saving on testing.

By: John

John — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 14:37:26 +0000

This is a great article. There was one quick question I had that doesn’t seem to be covered: When you reply to a text that was received as an email, does it appear to come from your GV number, or from your email address? If the latter, that might be confusing for the recipient.

I’m hoping it appears to come from your GV number. If so, I’ll be saving $10-15 a month on texting.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 03:46:00 +0000

Thanks so much for this post.

I first heard about Google Voice from somebody else, looked around a little bit and thought this article was supremely helpful.