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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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(Score: 2) by ilsa on Tuesday January 31 2017, @06:39PM
SMS over VOIP has always been a total crapshoot. There are apparently special settings/designations/something required for a number to be deemed SMS-able, and if something is missing, SMS just silently fails. It is an absolute, utter, PITA to get working reliably.
I tried to go the VOIP route but eventually gave up and went to a regular cell phone cause the hassle wasn't worth the savings.
Sounds like I made the correct choice for other reasons too, if what you say is true. Other replies seem convinced it's all about tracking 'n whatnot, which may well be a component. But IMO it's a small one compared to service reliability (not to mention ease of abuse, especially when the end-user has control of the caller ID)
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Tuesday January 31 2017, @07:29PM
I currently use voip,ms
Their SMS service appears relatively reliable but you have to use their crappy web-interface. One thing that implies is: no notifications when you receive a message (though they have a (polled) API for checking messages IIRC).
Another annoying thing with them is that their TOU clearly say that you are not supposed to rely on them. However, they also offer a white-lable service. That means that it is hard to comply with the TOU by searching for more than one VOIP provider, since you don't know how many are just fly-by-night resellers of the same handful of services.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 31 2017, @07:58PM
You can also text via email, if you have it set up. The limit is that is has to be in reply to another message. Therefore, I keep an email folder full of received text messages, so that way I can just reply from there.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday February 01 2017, @04:13AM
Please tell me you aren't paying for Voip.....
Dude, its free, unless you need a POTS handoff for outgoing calls.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Wednesday February 01 2017, @05:32AM
Until most people get off the POTS, I need POTS hand-off capability.
To be honest, I am not even set up to handle non POTS calls at the moment. Companies like Google and Facebook don't federate their VOIP servers, so I am not alone.
(Score: 2) by ilsa on Wednesday February 01 2017, @05:09PM
I had forgotten about the god awful UIs. That was also a major contributor to me giving up. I tried voip.ms, but their UI was so unbelievably cumbersome that I dropped them fairly quickly. Anveo is much better, and they actually advertise SMS as a feature rather than something that is just 'in beta'. UI was better, and I was able to direct SMS to pushover so that I would still get timely notifications.
Unfortunately a ran into several situations where my sip line was not treated as a cell phone, and the sender just didn't send the text. This was especially a problem when trying to use MFA.
I had hoped I could cobble together a 100% working solution using VOIP, but it was impossible. It was like, 95% there, but that was 5% not good enough, and eventually I had to come to the conclusion that I was better off paying the stupid expensive cell phone fees than having unreliable and cumbersome communications.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Tuesday January 31 2017, @08:53PM
Try again, because SMS messaging works better than that. I dunno about doing it over VoIP, because to my knowledge, it isn't done that way. I realize that Asterisk does have messaging capabilities, but that isn't exactly SMS, and doesn't exactly have full support in the various Endpoints and VoIP applications. I can see that being a clusterfuck simply because it is so new. Video is fairly new too and we're only starting to crack that one open.
My experience with SMS text messaging is highly reliable. Red Oxygen is a very large provider that specializes in SMS services through email or web interfaces. I've sent many thousands of messages through them (weekly), and received hundreds of messages in response. I've not used Twilio yet, but they support txt messaging, and MUCH cheaper than Red Oxygen, AND THE DID DOES VoIP AT THE SAME TIME. That last one I've waited years to come to market because previously your VoIP number and SMS number were required to be different. Red Oxygen also has software that integrates SMS messaging with Microsoft Outlook and it works extremely well, something I've not seen other providers do.
I'm not even trying to develop SMS capabilities alongside VoIP signalling. Instead I'm developing SMS-over-Email platforms that make SMS messaging more or less transparent through your email client, which nearly every smart phone will have set up. The subject line can contain the DID, but I even considered attaching stuff inline into the message to track conversations. I'm working on milter rules to allow you to pass the phone number as an email address too, which then allows me to connect to the vendor API directly. Ultimately the best way to do it will be through email and it should be a lot more reliable than what you've experienced before.
SMS with VoIP providers is exploding. The major ones that I've dealt with are starting to deploy it, and I know of 3 large scale VoIP providers with SMS services already. If Google sucks at it, then that speaks volumes about the quality of their service.
Patience. It will be here soon :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday February 01 2017, @04:11AM
SMS over VOIP has always been a total crapshoot.
Not on Google Voice. For me its been 100% reliable, even intercontinental sms via Google Voice.
There isn't a network blockage here, its a corporate block by the Telegram app and a few others.
I have the opposite problem. Dialed Calls to my Cell Number will bounce to my Google Voice number (which rings my Cell phone via GV Voip). My cell phone won't even ring - its like AT&T just hands it off to Google Voice rather than even attempting to connect directly to my cell. Probably cheaper for them. Better voice quality too.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by ilsa on Wednesday February 01 2017, @05:02PM
Unfortunately it's US only, so that doesn't help me at all. Also... Google. I'm not about to rely on something Google does only to have them turn around and cancel the service later on.