What is the best phone and plan to use with Google Voice?
A lot of questions about Google Voice:
How do you integrate Google Voice into your mobile life? I’m thinking of getting a simple pay-as-you-go plan to take advantage of the free texting that comes with GV. What’s a good method to keep my minutes down? Some have suggested using favorites lists to avoid paying anything. How can I make my Google Voice number display as the caller ID when I make outgoing calls?
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7 Answers
If you buy an Android phone it’s as easy as downloading the GV app. Everything integrates into the phone and you can just use the phone normally and the app will do all the work for you.
re: How can I make my Google Voice number display as the caller ID when I make outgoing calls?
Three ways.
1) As @J0E mentions, use the Google Voice app on an Android or Blackberry phone
2) Initiate the call from the Google Voice web site
3) Call your Google voice number – it gives you the option of managing voice mail or placing a call
re: How can I make my Google Voice number display as the caller ID when I make outgoing calls?
Three ways.
1) As @J0E mentions, use the Google Voice app on an Android or Blackberry phone
2) Initiate the call from the Google Voice web site
3) Call your Google voice number – you get the option of managing voice mail or placing a call
@jaytkay If you have the app you don’t have to use the website at all, it will automatically use your GV number when you make a call with the phone. You can even set it up to ask you each time if you want it to use your phone number or GV number.
@J0E Agreed, #1 is the best option of the three I listed.
The Google Voice app for Blackberry lacks many of the settings options that you see on the website (https://www.google.com/voice).
On the web site, you can control the outgoing caller id (your current phone or your GV number) as well as the incoming caller id (the caller’s number or your GV number) by:
1. signing in
2. clicking on the Settings menu (upper right hand corner of the browser window)
3. selecting the “Calls” tab
4. checking the correct box.
Also, while your GV number can accept incoming text messages, be careful.
You can control whether GV forwards incoming calls to your phone(s) or not with a checkbox (on the Phones tab of the web site). Problem is, when call fwd’ing is enabled, then it also will fwd any txt msgs as well.
If your service plan requires you to pay for txt msgs individually, this kinda sucks as it’s not really necessary. The GV app on your phone can independently alert you to new voicemail and txt msgs so sending those msgs to your phone is redundant, and unwanted if you’ve got to pay for ‘em.
I keep hoping Google will provide separate checkboxes for txt msgs and phone call forwarding. But it ain’t there yet.
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