Hack: use Google Voice to add visual voicemail to your G1, Dream, or Magic
By Chris Ziegler 
posted June 29th 2009 1:15PM
posted June 29th 2009 1:15PM
First, a quick note: to do this, you'll need a Google Voice account. After many, many months in private beta, Voice is finally starting to loosen up a bit, but it's still not a free-for-all; if you don't have an account, go to voice.google.com right this second and request an invite so that you can get in on this as soon as possible.
To begin, log into your Google Voice account by navigating to voice.google.com. Click on Settings at the top right of the page. If you haven't yet tied your cellphone to your Voice account, you'll want to do that now by clicking on the Phones tab and following the instructions on the screen.
After you've done that, click on the General tab in Settings. This is a good opportunity for you to set up your recorded name and voicemail greeting (they're the third and fourth settings in the list). Google does this by actually calling you and asking you to record them over your phone, just as you would with any other voicemail system -- you don't need a studio-quality mic attached to your PC or anything fancy like that.
The idea behind Google Voice -- better expressed by its former name "Grand Central" -- is that you're given a new phone number that acts as a central clearinghouse for all calls coming into you. In other words, you give out your Google Voice number instead of your landline or your cellphone number, and Google routes the call to you. That's great, but the problem with that plan (assuming you're okay with Google owning your main phone number) is that they're currently not allowing you to port numbers in to the system, which for many folks is a deal-breaker.
That's okay, though, because we're going to effectively use Google Voice backwards. Crazy, right?
"But if I'm not giving out my Google phone number," you're thinking, "why do I need to make sure it doesn't forward to my cellphone when someone calls it?" Good question! The answer is that you'll be calling your Google number yourself. By default, your phone is configured to call a number assigned to you by your carrier if you don't answer, your line's busy, or your out of coverage; this is the number that takes callers' voicemails and plays them back to you when you press and hold the 1 key on your phone.
What you may not have known is that you can change this number to whatever you want! We don't want to use our carrier's lame voicemail system anymore, so we're going to have 'em forward unanswered calls to our Google Voice number instead -- which will go straight to our Google Voice voicemail. Pretty neat, huh?
Now that we have Google Voice itself configured the way we want, we have to set up the proper call forwarding on our phones. Some Android devices have a menu in Settings where you can do this totally painlessly.
If you were unable to find any of these menu items, you'll need to proceed to Plan B -- programming those three call forwarding settings by dialing GSM codes, which AT&T has a good guide on here. These codes are standard across carriers; obviously, your mileage may vary, but they should work.
Good news -- you're almost done! The last piece of the puzzle is to install an app on your phone that'll allow you to access your Google Voice account. Google doesn't have one yet -- which we find a little bizarre -- but in the meantime, there's an excellent third-party substitute in the Android Market called GV. Grab it and install it.
The first time you run GV, you'll be asked to save your Google Voice login and voicemail PIN (make sure you've set this up on the Google Voice site first) so the app can do its thing. You'll also be to configure some settings. For this setup, we recommend that you uncheck "Route all calls through GV," and set "Check for new" to 15 minutes. You can have it check for voicemail more frequently than that if you like, but it'll hasten battery drain a bit.
Pretty cool, huh? The developer of GV warns that Google hasn't released an actual API for developers wanting to code against Google Voice services, so the app cheats a bit by relying on certain HTML elements of the service's mobile site. If you like what you see (and we know we certainly do), be sure to let Google know that you want them to expose an API -- and while they're at it, release an official app!
The Google I|O phones don't get ota updates. You have to download all updates from HTC's site.
http://www.htc.com/www/support/android/google-io-device.html
You can also add your cell phone number as a contact in Google Voice and set it to be sent straight to voicemail. If you do that, calls to your cell phone that go to voicemail are sent to Google Voice, and phone calls made to your Google Voice number are still forwarded to your cell
am i the only one wondering what phone there using considering it says att as the carrier and instead of 3g its show H .... i think i mite be the only one
You can do this on any phone, all you have to do basically is to use GSM carrier hacks:
http://www.f1vlad.com/blog/2009/02/07/1208/tuning-your-voice-mail
This works best, also, if you're constantly dropping a new rom on your device.
there is another option now www.hullomail.com has their app available in the US
ive just tried it out
free....nicer UI....and i get them in MY email not anyone elses....
tasty...
My invite came through and I just got this working on Verizon with a WinMo 5.1 phone. I just wait for a text or email to tell me I've got a message, then i can call my Google Voice number to get my messages or read the transcription.
The only thing I found that was different on Verizon is that you need to dial *92 then your 10 digit google voice number to forward unanswered calls. (*920 to stop forwarding.) I'm going to try it out for a few days and see how I like it.
Just did this from my BlackBerry Curve and it works perfectly. I did not need to add a G-voice application as there is email notification of the voicemail.
Follow the directions above for setting up the G-Voice settings. Then on your Curve,
1) Press the Talk Key
2) Press the menu key, go to options
3) Click through call forwarding, and then follow the prompts to change the number.
I set it up, but now I have a permament VM icon and message on my phone that wont go away :( when I call into my GV account it says no new messages :(
How do I make it go away?
Most likely you just need to call into your old voice mail number and clear the message that's sitting in there. You saved the old number, yes?
Google FINALLY has an Android app for Google Voice. Works well with the hack.
Um.... Seems like if all you want to use GV for is the visual voicemail, you could just use Phonefusion's visual voice mail that has been out for android since nearly the beginning?! (esspecially since GV is still invite only)
I ran into a weird issue with this setup. I was in an area with bad signal, and every time I tried to call my boyfriend, I got dead air. Turned out the dead air was the Google Voice voice mail answering MY calls without giving a greeting. I ended getting notified of the number of calls I had tried making, and the recordings made while I was grumbling, wondering what was going on. I think you need to have good cell reception for the GV hand off to occur correctly.
Has anyone figured out how to reduce the number of rings it takes before GV answers? With either DND enabled or DND disabled and no phones enabled it still takes 3 or so rings to pick up after forwarding. That brings the total rings up to 7 or 8, which seems to be long enough that a lot of people aren't leaving messages.
Is there a step by step tutorial on how to setup Google Voice for a blackberry phone? Been searching the net for a tutorial and can't find anyone.