Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Olney
Nothing shows up on your bill.. Its just using the data plan that you have. You have to setup google voice to accept the incoming calls to your google voice number within the application, same with sms.
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eh, hmm.. no. this is not entirely accurate.
Google Voice at present is more of a forwarding service than a pure VoIP service. So it isn't only going to consume data UNLESS the only thing you are going to be using it for is texting or if you set it up to forward incoming and outgoing voice calls with a 3rd party VoIP service/app.
This means that for most folks anything involving a voice call with GV is going to require some minutes usage depending on your phone carrier's rate plan and in turn
something will be logged in your phone records for either an incoming or outgoing call.
With Google Voice you must setup one or more forwarding numbers with your GV account. Google Voice doesn't forward incoming or outgoing calls through a VoIP channel instead any incoming calls to your GV number will be forwarded to one or more of your forwarding numbers depending on how many forwarding numbers you register and the call rules you create. A forwarding number can be a U.S. landline, mobile phone, or a VoIP number.
Now the OP seems mostly concerned about what sort of call logging one might see on a phone bill or a carrier's phone records. For incoming calls Google Voice can be set to show your GV number as the caller-id or it can pass thru the caller-id of the original caller. In the first situation the only thing that will be seen on your phone and in your phone carriers records is your GV number. This makes it immediately apparent that you are receiving a call on your GV number without even having to answer the phone. In the latter situation both your phone and your phone records will show the original callers telephone number and it won't be obvious that call was to your GV number until you actually take the call.
For an outgoing call you can do one of two options. First you can call your GV number from one of your registered forwarding numbers and after Google answers, dial the actual number you want to reach. The other way is to start the call through the
GV smartphone app or the
GV web interface. In which case GV will call your designated forwarding number first and upon answering the phone it will then dial and connect you to the party you are trying to reach. Those that you call will only see your GV number in their caller-id and your phone carriers records will only show either an incoming or outgoing call to your GV number instead of the final true destination of the call.
When sending messages through SMS (text message), GV can be set to show either your actual forwarding number or your Google Voice number as the originating number.
At this time GV does not support MMS except through a pseudo method with Sprint customers. The MMS messages actually get converted to an e-mail and any media files are available as an attachment. GV is supposed to be supposed to be working on expanding the carriers they will do this with.
Google announced that GV is going to remain free for at least this year. This implies that it may no longer be free next year.
Finally if you want to go the pure data approach that would avoid any type of logging of a voice call it will require an application to be installed that will support some sort of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service. The voice calls will then go in or out as data traffic through 3G/4G/WiFi.
Google also has the ability to do voice and video calls through
Google Talk and
Gmail voice+video chat which is not quite the same animal as Google Voice. Google Talk is only for communicating with other GT users and the Gmail video+voice plug-in is for desktops/laptops. I am not aware of a mobile app for the latter.
Google voice iPhone qq
