Comments on: Free Texting With Google Voice

By: Thomas Trumble

Thomas Trumble — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:46:09 +0000

A data plan isn’t required. As you suggested wifi will take care of all your data needs for Google Voice, but without a data plan you are tied to only texting where you have wifi access. A data plan will give you a lot more flexibility.

By: Shriram

Shriram — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:23:35 +0000

Tom,
Is data plan really necessary? Couldnt you use Google Voice with just wi-fi?? (assuming you have a wi-fi hotspot connection)

By: Mat

Mat — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:50:13 +0000

Sometimes my texts get locked up when sending a text. It says “sending SMS messgae” but doesn’t go any further. I have to download google voice again to get it working again.

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!