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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
When we first introduced Google Voice our goal was to create "one number for life"—a phone number that's tied to you, rather than a single device or a location. Since then, millions of people have signed up to use Google Voice to call, text and get voicemail on all their devices. It's been several years since we've made significant updates to the Google Voice apps (and by several, we mean around five ;)), but today we're bringing a fresh set of features to Google Voice with updates to our apps on Android, iOS and the web.
Source: https://blog.google/products/google-voice/ringing-2017-updates-our-google-voice-apps/
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Ringing in 2017 With Updates to Our Google Voice Apps
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sillema sillema nika su
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday January 31 2017, @06:08PM
I'm just glad they didn't do the Google thing and cancel. I miss Reader. Newsblur is nice, but...
I think I've been using GV for a long time, maybe a decade, since the "grand central" days, and its been great. The irony is the feature set would have been killer like 30 years ago when I still used legacy voice phone calling. Everyone I know uses facebook messenger for general social texting and video calling and its always weird having to use old fashioned SMS to log into my credit union or something corporate like that. I get spam voice calls. I get corporate-type phone calls like voice blasts from the school district mostly about stuff that doesn't matter. Last time I actually used my phone to make an outgoing legacy voice channel phone call was ... hmm. Anyway now that I have all these features that would have been pretty awesome in 1980s I don't use legacy phone technology at all. Oh well.
This legacy effect makes conversations about big brother watching me on GV awkward. Imagine if google gave us all free telegrams although no one uses telegrams anymore except spam and government notices, in which case I wouldn't care if big brother read my telegrams because he sent them to me to begin with.
Slightly off topic its been interesting over the last decade watching the social growth of voice calling. If someones in your family or is close and at least one side of the call is say 20 or younger, those calls are now all video, either facetime or hangouts or messenger. Nobody seems to do legacy voice anymore other than business/corporate type calls, like a dentist office reminding of an appointment. I haven't seen video spam yet. It would be fun to see scammers on video chat.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Celestial on Tuesday January 31 2017, @06:30PM
That reminds me. This is a bit off-topic and I apologize, but: My sister and her family live on the other side of the continent from our parents and myself. About four years ago, I set both my sister and her family and my parents up with Skype accounts and Skype television cameras. The Skype television cameras were hooked up to their televisions (obviously), and they were able to make video calls to each other as families while sitting on the couch in front of their televisions. It worked really well, and my parents were happy that they could see their grandchildren.
Then last June, Skype discontinued their television service without any kind of warning. The equipment I bought and installed for both of them was now useless. Now my parents and my sister and her family have to video call using FaceTime on their phones. It works, but it's nowhere near as good as being able to sit back on the couch and everyone being able to see everyone else. Dang Microsoft.
(Score: 1) by charon on Tuesday January 31 2017, @07:15PM
(Score: 2) by Celestial on Tuesday January 31 2017, @07:22PM
Yeah, video chat is really only good for very long distance loved ones, IMO. People you actually only see IRL once or twice a year IRL that you'd rather see much more often. Other than that, no thanks.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday January 31 2017, @08:04PM
Yeah I think kids are the wedge for that technology that grannie loves seeing the grandkids and give the kids 20 years of video calling and in a couple decades "everyone loves video, everyone has always loved video".
Oh and in a peak of ridiculousness my son and his friends video game "together-ish" using video calls holding the camera up to the TV to show each other their accomplishments, sort of like a virtual LAN party. I suppose consoles and big screen TVs are harder to carry around than lan party computers were back in my day. And my daughter and her friends dance and sing along to music over video calls. Both situations, when I discovered them, were total WTF at first but I guess thats life in 2017.
Decades ago telephones cost a lot and cost per minute and were audio only but we're raising a generation where free video call everywhere all the time is just what they do, and that Gibson quote "The street finds its own uses for things" is timeless. A virtual LAN party to play multiplayer minecraft, I never would have imagined it, but the kids invented it all by themselves, my only interaction was to WTF when I first saw it.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 31 2017, @07:55PM
I don't have a cell phone and a couple of times a year it's convenent to send/receive a few text messages (assuming these are SMS?) While I'm probably doing this the hard way, for the little that I need it Google Voice is acceptable. I've used it (in Firefox) for many years and the texts are generally reliable. Sometimes it seems like they take a few hours to appear, although the delayed messages have the original sending time stamp.
If the person texting to me includes a photo, that is sent as an attachment to my linked Gmail account silently, no special notification -- so I have to manually poll both Voice and Gmail to make sure I see what's coming in.
Haven't noticed any changes with this recent upgrade except Google is now trying to migrate me to "Hangouts" whatever that is...
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday February 01 2017, @03:54AM
I'm just glad they didn't do the Google thing and cancel. I miss Reader. Newsblur is nice, but...
A flurry of pathetic updates, usually with hidden drawbacks only discovered later, is usually the pre-cancel signal.
Enjoy it while you can.
Allegedly google voice makes money on international calls. I say allegedly because OTT services and voip have been booming in the years since they said anything about it.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.