Google Hangouts gets a huge update, including Google Voice integration

There's also a brand new Android app and VoIP calling.

Read the whole story

 

[alai]

Thank fucking god! Is it too much to hope that this will also finally provide a decent MMS experience?

 

[lessthanjoey]

I got this update (it definitely looks green and nothing like the old app), but I don't have the dialer -- just the contacts and conversations tabs.

 

[tenaku2]

lessthanjoey[/url]":1nmbvota]I got this update (it definitely looks green and nothing like the old app), but I don't have the dialer -- just the contacts and conversations tabs.

you have to download the "hangouts dialer" app from google play to get the dialer.

 

[jameschao]

It seems like the actual Google Voice SMS integration is getting pulled back, at least for the time being: https://plus.google.com/+DroidLife/posts/YAhywZpfXo7

Maybe they rolled that out accidentally when they were rolling out the VOIP functionality.

 

[Coriolanus]

alai[/url]":2fnk38s5]Thank fucking god! Is it too much to hope that this will also finally provide a decent MMS experience?

Yes, apparently, because this Hangouts update still doesn't support MMS.

 

[ReaderBot]

How will this affect my Make All Calls Using Google Voice setting in the default dialer?

 

[lessthanjoey]

tenaku2[/url]":29vcphg9]

lessthanjoey[/url]":29vcphg9]I got this update (it definitely looks green and nothing like the old app), but I don't have the dialer -- just the contacts and conversations tabs.

you have to download the "hangouts dialer" app from google play to get the dialer.

Got it - thanks!

 

[Aelix]

alai[/url]":1g1lqqd0]Thank fucking god! Is it too much to hope that this will also finally provide a decent MMS experience?

Kind of, MMS images are sent to the recipient as a link.

 

[alai]

Aelix[/url]":1d20vqn0]

alai[/url]":1d20vqn0]Thank fucking god! Is it too much to hope that this will also finally provide a decent MMS experience?

Kind of, MMS images are sent to the recipient as a link.

Hmm, I wonder about receiving them though. I never get MMSs that friends send to my Google Voice number.

edit: reading through the comments on your link... doesn't look like it. Sigh.

 

[bbf]

For the impatient, one can obtain the updated (v2.3) Google Hangouts apk from the droid-life.com article. (Scroll to the bottom.)

I can't guarantee that it's safe, but it's linked from the droid-life.com page.

 

[bigstrat2003]

Did anyone else hear the Hallelujah chorus start playing in their head when they read the article title?

 

[Boskone]

And yet there's still not an email->sms gateway.

You can kludge one (I did, using my email server and a perl script), but it entails getting emails about _all_ SMS you get (which I then had to filter out) and a few other annoyances.

 

[horatio77]

"which makes it a lot more flexible THAN a number from a cell carrier."

Then/than typo in fifth paragraph.

 

[Chemical Tribe]

alai[/url]":25bkmal3]

Aelix[/url]":25bkmal3]

alai[/url]":25bkmal3]Thank fucking god! Is it too much to hope that this will also finally provide a decent MMS experience?

Kind of, MMS images are sent to the recipient as a link.

Hmm, I wonder about receiving them though. I never get MMSs that friends send to my Google Voice number.

edit: reading through the comments on your link... doesn't look like it. Sigh.

It only worked with certain carriers iirc.

 

[MisterAlex]

alai[/url]":2wp3v30v]
Hmm, I wonder about receiving them though. I never get MMSs that friends send to my Google Voice number.

edit: reading through the comments on your link... doesn't look like it. Sigh.

From what I've read, it's more of a carrier-to-carrier support issue. I'm on T-Mobile, and I've been able to receive MMS picture messages at my Google Voice number since at least last February (2013). When someone sends me a picture message, I get a text at my Voice number that says MMS Received. The picture shows up in my Gmail as an email attachment. Not elegant, but it's at least functional. I know that at least picture messages from AT&T, T-Mobile, and MetroPCS customers show up just fine this way.

Edit: I just got the updated Hangouts 2.3 client, and I'm acquainting myself with the modified layout. So far I don't yet see the option to switch to sending as my Voice number. I may have to wait for that to be available for my account, in particular.

 

[MindSetter]

For those wondering about the technical details:
You can make phone calls using cell data or wifi and use no carrier minutes (or wifi without a carrier entirely).
Calls to cell and landlines is free in US/Canada, few cents/minute elsewhere.
Calls from hangouts to hangouts are free anywhere. You have always been able to do this using gmail on a computer, now you can do it with your phone as well. (phones were previously limited to video calls).

Situations where this would benefit you:
If you spend a lot of time on the phone in a single location with wifi (home or work) now you can kill your battery less, cook yourself with cellular radios a bit less, and use no minutes.
If you have a weak cell signal but good wifi your call quality could improve.
If you have a plan with few minutes (like the tmobile $30) you have more breathing room.
If you have an old unused phone sitting around at home and good wifi you can now use that as a free housephone and cancel your landline.

Remaining issues with going 100% Hangouts/GoogleVoice:
The two biggest carriers, ATT/Verizon (surprise surprise) are still refusing to forward mms messages from their customers to google voice numbers. So if someone tries to send a group text or picture text to your Google Voice number you might not receive it. Google has been trying to resolve this for a long time.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/colu ... t/4372663/
-
edit: Different people report different results with mms, I believe the carrier of the mms sender is the most important variable. The last time I tested this if someone on ATT sent an mms from their carrier number to my GV number it would never reach me, and judging by Reddit comments I'm not the only one.
Since Google is currently changing options all over the place (hangouts settings menus disappearing from one day to the next) it might be worth checking Android sites again in a couple weeks after the dust settles and see what the mms situation is.
-
edit2: Got the prompt in hangouts to merge Google Voice sms into hangouts, I accepted and then tested sms and mms, unfortunately the issues I mentioned above still exist.
If I send a picture mms from Google Voice to a Verizon customer it uploads the image to a google server and sends them a link (ok fine), however when a Verizon customer sends an mms to my Google Voice number it disappears into a black hole, they think it went through fine and I never receive anything. Presumably because ATT/Verizon are still refusing to forward mms messages from their customers to Google Voice as mentioned in the article I linked above.

 

[aexcorp]

Damn it, Google, my Skype USA and Canada subscription just renewed a week ago...

Now I don't need it anymore My app updated and I installed the dialer, but I haven't done a test call yet.

 

[kleinma]

Serious question: Is there anything in the terms of use regarding google voice as to if they scan voice data for ad targeting?

 

[GreenEnvy]

Just got it on my phone (in Canada).
I don't have a Google voice account but I was able to make outbound calls with it.

 

[ReaderBot]

MindSetter[/url]":1ug3hn55]For those wondering about the technical details:
You can make phone calls using cell data or wifi and use no carrier minutes (or without a carrier entirely).
Calls to cell and landlines is free in US/Canada, few cents/minute elsewhere.
Calls from hangouts to hangouts are free anywhere. You have always been able to do this using gmail on a computer, now you can do it with your phone as well. (phones were previously limited to video calls).

Situations where this would benefit you
If you spend a lot of time on the phone in a single location (home or work) now you can kill your battery less, expose you to less cellular radio energy, use no minutes.
If you have a weak cell signal but good wifi your call quality could improve.
If you have an old unused phone sitting around at home and good wifi you can now use that as a free housephone and cancel your landline.

Remaining issues with going 100% Hangouts/GoogleVoice:
The two biggest carriers, ATT/Verizon (surprise surprise) are still refusing to forward mms messages to google voice numbers. So if someone tries to send a group text or picture text to your Google Voice number you might not receive it. Google has been trying to resolve this for a long time.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/colu ... t/4372663/

Before I switched from AT&T, I had no trouble getting MMS's in Voice (albeit in the terrible terrible link-to-email format). It still works that way on Cricket.

 

[Rabbiddog]

sprockkets[/url]":3gfe75wo]

alai[/url]":3gfe75wo]

Aelix[/url]":3gfe75wo]

alai[/url]":3gfe75wo]Thank fucking god! Is it too much to hope that this will also finally provide a decent MMS experience?

Kind of, MMS images are sent to the recipient as a link.

Hmm, I wonder about receiving them though. I never get MMSs that friends send to my Google Voice number.

edit: reading through the comments on your link... doesn't look like it. Sigh.

It only worked with certain carriers iirc.

Yes, Sprint was one. I would get MMS messages however, I would only get the text message itself to GV, the media file would get sent to the Gmail account linked to GV.

 

[vogelabv]

Just got it on my Moto X! This is the best news I've heard this month! Take that Apple Watch!

Update: Similar to another user above, I can't seem to find a way to send a message from my Google Voice number in Hangouts. It shows both my cell and voice number in settings, but there seems to be no way to change where messages are sent from.

I also don't have the third tab with a dialer in Google Hangouts. Seems like they've pulled support for it temporarily...

Update #2: You have to install "Hangouts Dialer". Once you install that, Hangouts integrates with Google Voice. Success! It still doesn't support texts from my Google Voice number, but it has the full dial out interface.

Update #3: If you turn off forwarding in Google Voice, and check the 'Incoming phone calls' in Hangout Dialer any incoming calls to your Voice # will go to Hangouts. All incoming calls to your cell # will go to the Dialer.

Update #4: Google has an update regarding why the functionality was pulled:
https://plus.google.com/106717946845088 ... aZ9wzPxtmm
"these features will be activated a few days after we complete today’s rollout. so grab the new version of hangouts when it’s available (v2.3, http://goo.gl/v7FTL), and install the accompanying dialer to turn on voice calls (http://goo.gl/tRaJpm). ios only supports google voice calling for now, but sms and voicemail support are coming soon."

 

[Rabbiddog]

jameschao[/url]":mi14yial]It seems like the actual Google Voice SMS integration is getting pulled back, at least for the time being: https://plus.google.com/+DroidLife/posts/YAhywZpfXo7

Maybe they rolled that out accidentally when they were rolling out the VOIP functionality.

Um, I'm not so sure. been using it since it was released yesterday. Even then I never got the same screen that is shown in the post. However, If I went into settings, it would list my GV number as being a verified number. I also verified that texts (as well as phone calls) sent to another phone show up as being from my GV number. So far this is still working for me. Then again, it's possible I just haven't gotten the rollback yet either.

EDIT: Another thought is this could also have to do with being on Sprint as that was one of the carriers that allowed actual GV integration.

 

[Leiesoldat]

MindSetter[/url]":3urmjxmz]For those wondering about the technical details:
You can make phone calls using cell data or wifi and use no carrier minutes (or wifi without a carrier entirely).
Calls to cell and landlines is free in US/Canada, few cents/minute elsewhere.
Calls from hangouts to hangouts are free anywhere. You have always been able to do this using gmail on a computer, now you can do it with your phone as well. (phones were previously limited to video calls).

Situations where this would benefit you:
If you spend a lot of time on the phone in a single location (home or work) now you can kill your battery less, expose yourself to less cellular radio energy, and use no minutes.
If you have a weak cell signal but good wifi your call quality could improve.
If you have an old unused phone sitting around at home and good wifi you can now use that as a free housephone and cancel your landline.

Remaining issues with going 100% Hangouts/GoogleVoice:
The two biggest carriers, ATT/Verizon (surprise surprise) are still refusing to forward mms messages to google voice numbers. So if someone tries to send a group text or picture text to your Google Voice number you might not receive it. Google has been trying to resolve this for a long time.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/colu ... t/4372663/

I always struggled to find a use for the GVoice number. Your post needs to be upp'd quickly to favorite. That last point in the middle section is so helpful!

 

[MindSetter]

ReaderBot[/url]":1jk9heup]

MindSetter[/url]":1jk9heup]For those wondering about the technical details:
You can make phone calls using cell data or wifi and use no carrier minutes (or without a carrier entirely).
Calls to cell and landlines is free in US/Canada, few cents/minute elsewhere.
Calls from hangouts to hangouts are free anywhere. You have always been able to do this using gmail on a computer, now you can do it with your phone as well. (phones were previously limited to video calls).

Situations where this would benefit you
If you spend a lot of time on the phone in a single location (home or work) now you can kill your battery less, expose you to less cellular radio energy, use no minutes.
If you have a weak cell signal but good wifi your call quality could improve.
If you have an old unused phone sitting around at home and good wifi you can now use that as a free housephone and cancel your landline.

Remaining issues with going 100% Hangouts/GoogleVoice:
The two biggest carriers, ATT/Verizon (surprise surprise) are still refusing to forward mms messages to google voice numbers. So if someone tries to send a group text or picture text to your Google Voice number you might not receive it. Google has been trying to resolve this for a long time.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/colu ... t/4372663/

Before I switched from AT&T, I had no trouble getting MMS's in Voice (albeit in the terrible terrible link-to-email format). It still works that way on Cricket.

It's possible something has changed, or my understanding is incorrect. As far as I know the issue is not what carrier you are using but rather the carrier the mms sender is using. I know when I tried to switch completely to GV around 18 months ago I kept missing group mms sent from others and had to switch back to using my tmobile number.

 

[Decoherent]

I just got an update to Google Voice whose changelog was "Integration with Hangouts", but I still can't get the new Hangouts update. Why the hell would you stagger an app rollout, anyway?

 

[Rabbiddog]

Decoherent[/url]":v4km3i0l]I just got an update to Google Voice whose changelog was "Integration with Hangouts", but I still can't get the new Hangouts update. Why the hell would you stagger an app rollout, anyway?

There were several tech articles put out that had a direct download link for the new Hangouits version. This is how I updated my Hangouts version.

 

[vassago]

The irony being that Voice just updated on my phone with no update for Hangouts to be found...

*edit* And there's the update for Hangouts.
And Play Music and Google Text to Speech and Google News and Weather. Kind of a lot of updates from Google today.

 

[logic_88]

Decoherent[/url]":9goqylyy]I just got an update to Google Voice whose changelog was "Integration with Hangouts", but I still can't get the new Hangouts update. Why the hell would you stagger an app rollout, anyway?

There are several hundred million Android devices in use. Do you really want to try updating all of them at once?

 

[bug77]

Hangouts is definitely not the default SMS application in KitKat. It did ask me if I wanted to let it handle SMS, but I declined and am still happily using Messages.
And Voice was always iffy outside of the US (maybe even within, if your carrier decided to block it), hopefully it got better with this update.

 

[xaqattax]

Google Voice just got a snazzy update on the iPhone but I don't have hangouts. I don't know that they've totally abandoned it.

 

[araemo]

Ninhalem[/url]":mqairv58]

MindSetter[/url]":mqairv58]For those wondering about the technical details:
You can make phone calls using cell data or wifi and use no carrier minutes (or wifi without a carrier entirely).
Calls to cell and landlines is free in US/Canada, few cents/minute elsewhere.
Calls from hangouts to hangouts are free anywhere. You have always been able to do this using gmail on a computer, now you can do it with your phone as well. (phones were previously limited to video calls).

Situations where this would benefit you:
If you spend a lot of time on the phone in a single location (home or work) now you can kill your battery less, expose yourself to less cellular radio energy, and use no minutes.
If you have a weak cell signal but good wifi your call quality could improve.
If you have an old unused phone sitting around at home and good wifi you can now use that as a free housephone and cancel your landline.

Remaining issues with going 100% Hangouts/GoogleVoice:
The two biggest carriers, ATT/Verizon (surprise surprise) are still refusing to forward mms messages to google voice numbers. So if someone tries to send a group text or picture text to your Google Voice number you might not receive it. Google has been trying to resolve this for a long time.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/colu ... t/4372663/

I always struggled to find a use for the GVoice number. Your post needs to be upp'd quickly to favorite. That last point in the middle section is so helpful!

I use mine to have a separate work vs. personal # (including separate voicemails).

Personal # is the one my actual phone plan is through. Google voice is the number I use for work. (I actually have two google voice numbers, but one goes unused at the moment).

So, work emails end up in the google voice app, work text messages end up in the google voice app. Work phone calls (currently) ring the physical phone.

I'm not sure I want to use hangouts for all (work) calls.. if I'm on GOOD wifi: Great. If I'm on not good wifi.. not so great. Also, I have unlimited minutes.. I do NOT have unlimited data.

 

[Rabbiddog]

MindSetter[/url]":3q9bsx2l]For those wondering about the technical details:
You can make phone calls using cell data or wifi and use no carrier minutes (or wifi without a carrier entirely).
Calls to cell and landlines is free in US/Canada, few cents/minute elsewhere.
Calls from hangouts to hangouts are free anywhere. You have always been able to do this using gmail on a computer, now you can do it with your phone as well. (phones were previously limited to video calls).

Situations where this would benefit you:
If you spend a lot of time on the phone in a single location with wifi (home or work) now you can kill your battery less, cook yourself with cellular radios a bit less, and use no minutes.
If you have a weak cell signal but good wifi your call quality could improve.
If you have a plan with few minutes (like the tmobile $30) you have more breathing room.
If you have an old unused phone sitting around at home and good wifi you can now use that as a free housephone and cancel your landline.

Remaining issues with going 100% Hangouts/GoogleVoice:
The two biggest carriers, ATT/Verizon (surprise surprise) are still refusing to forward mms messages to google voice numbers. So if someone tries to send a group text or picture text to your Google Voice number you might not receive it. Google has been trying to resolve this for a long time.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/colu ... t/4372663/

Yet more reasons I stayed with Sprint all these years. They allowed for GV integration, didn't block Google Wallet and in general didn't suck ass or screw their customers over (as much) as AT&T and Verizon.

 

[macemoneta]

The SMS in Hangouts also don't go out with the GV phone number, as they did with GV. That's the reason I still have GV installed; no one knows my phone's actual number.

 

[andre_elias]

Now, where is the desktop version?

 

[LJ]

I was testing it yesterday and can confirm you can make and receive calls without a mobile network connection of any type if you are on wifi. It looks pretty solid so far, although my testing was only fairly basic (I didn't have any echo problems and the VoIP quality seemed solid as if I was using a stadnard VoIP bridge)

 

[LJ]

macemoneta[/url]":ku9vp8wa]The SMS in Hangouts also don't go out with the GV phone number, as they did with GV. That's the reason I still have GV installed; no one knows my phone's actual number.

Not true. People who had this rolled out reported being able to send with the GV number from hangouts. However, they said they could not choose *which* GV number the texts came from.

I only have a single GV number so I don't mind.

You can see how replies can and should work here once the update rolls out:

https://support.google.com/hangouts/ans ... mart-reply

(note: it says you can select your GV number when replying to a text)

 

[Andy Somnifac]

It's cool to see the integration finally. A couple of things to note though:

(I'm on Sprint, so my GV number is my carrier number. That may affect these observations.)

I can set the Hangouts app to show incoming calls to my GV (Sprint number) number and it does ring on incoming calls. However, if I decline a call, the built in Android dialer then begins to ring and I have to decline it a second time.

If I want to record an incoming call, I have to answer using the Android dialer. Answering with the Hangouts dialer and pressing 4 does nothing.

Same result for conferencing. If I want to conference a call, I have to initiate or answer a call with the Android dialer.