yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Epic 4G General] gtjacoby:
Old Functionality

That 'send text message' is old functionality and only gives GV permission to send various texts to that specific cell phone.

Once the integration is available to everyone (jealous of those in Beta, BTW) you will just click the 'Change/Port' link next to your current GV number.

Hope this helps!
[Epic 4G General] Kcarpenter:
I can't wait for this to happen. I want GV integration soooo bad.
[Epic 4G General] randyist:
@azyouthinkeyeiz you rule!
[Epic 4G General] erkme73:
Be careful! As of today, if you call Sprint tech support, they'll walk you through the "sprint integration" by getting you to PORT your number. They assured me it wouldn't port - but everything on googles site was saying "are you really sure you want to cancel your cell contract..." I bailed. Glad I did, as many others fell for this and lost their lines.

When you have the option in your account it will look different than what we see now...
[Epic 4G General] azyouthinkeyeiz:
Well, *as of today* that is the only option anyways... Just wait for the options to populate on Google's site. (as gtjacoby previously said)

**Side note, don't call *TECH SUPPORT* to walk you through anything, unless you want it done wrong...
[Epic 4G General] erkme73:
Touche.......
[Epic 4G General] MojoSwag:
I just went to google and it let me change over directly from the website
[Epic 4G General] Kcarpenter:
When I try to do it, it tells me there will be a $20 charge payble via google check out. :(
[Epic 4G General] erkme73:
If you get the $20 charge warning, that is the path to PORTING your number... DO NOT PROCEED.

Apparently some accounts are, in fact, active with the integration tools (beta accounts). They have an extra set of options that the rest of us don't.

Mojo, can you describe the options you had (or post some screen shots)?
[Epic 4G General] MojoSwag:
They sent me the beta invitation about a month ago. As soon as I logged in, a screen popped up asking me if I wanted to use my existing gv number or use my sprint number. From what I've read on the net, it should be open to all sprint customers on the 26th.

Before the beta, I got that same $20 mesage to port my number over. Just wait!!!! Everyone should get the option soon.
[Epic 4G General] MedicStuder:
I am not familiar with google voice. Can someone please explain the this in detail for those of us that dont understand why this is a good thing and what benefits this brings. Thank you in advance as i am intreged by this after reading posts.
[Epic 4G General] herbthehammer:
I got an invite a couple weeks back and tried it out. I didn't like it at all. SMS kinda works but mms attachments don't. That's with the stock messaging program too. Until google fixes call routing, lag during conversations and adds the ability to send AND receive attachments in both stock and gv apply, I will keep everything separate. IMO it's not all what it's cracked up to be.
[Epic 4G General] MojoSwag:
Herb, did you find a way to get GV to send text to the built in app or did it route through the voice app?
[Epic 4G General] bjhill2112:
Google Voice is a call routing scheme. Basically, you'll be able to port your Sprint phone number as your Google Voice number. GV will then be able to take any call made to your Sprint number and route it where ever you wish - you can have it ring both your home phone and your mobile, your mobile and your work phone, your wife's phone too, etc. You can even set it up so that if certain people call you it will route differently. Also, all voice mail is stored on the GV servers and automatically transcribed (although typically not well). In theory it's very cool - kind of like a personal, virtual PBX. Sounds like there are a few technical hickups though.
[Epic 4G General] bjhill2112:
Speak of the devil...
[Epic 4G General] tmuka:
this seems pretty cool, i'm excited to see how it works. Does anyone know if calling a friend's google voice number counts as a mobile call or landline using anytime minutes? will this new option change that?
[Epic 4G General] WhiteWidows:
I got mine today as well. But Im still being told to pay $20 and it will terminate my line? What gives?

*EDIT* Never mind..I logged out and back in and the option came up
[Epic 4G General] faceless:
got mine today as well, but i'm not interested.
[Epic 4G General] churro7:
What does this mean exactly

Sent from Snarf phone
[Epic 4G General] WhiteWidows:
Is there a way to not get sms to gv and only go to my stock mms app?
[Epic 4G General] herbthehammer:
This is my observations a week or so ago. http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1034542

Once everything becomes official I might try it again to see what happens. If it is the same as the beta then I won't integrate, I will keep my sprint and gv numbers separate.

Another thing I wish could be done is this:

I wish that if someone called your gv number, your phone would show the caller's number and it would let you know they are calling your gv number. They have an option, that I haven't tried yet (I suppose I should to see what happens), that says when someone calls your google voice number, it shows your gv number on your phone as the incoming number. If I'm following their convoluted explanation, people would call your gv number but you wouldn't know who they are because your caller id is showing your gv number. Now the person calling you is hiding behind your gv number. The problem now is that I can't tell who is calling what phone number when my phone rings. I don't know if they are calling my sprint number or my gv number. If I'm getting wrong numbers or phone soliciting, I don't know which number they are calling to my phone. Google voice can get confusong really quickly and almost like speaking a foreign language at first when you have no idea on how to use it or set it up or what the settings do.

One thing I don't understand is that why would google offer this and not charge the customer? Why would sprint do this and no make money off the customer? What is the (hidden) benefit with either/both sprint and google having calls and texts and voicemail routed through google's servers? Big brother spying? Usually most companies don't do stuff for free unless they are getting some sort of benefit. I haven't figured out what they could gain. Any speculations?
[Epic 4G General] Poryhack:
Maybe they're trying to keep the tinfoil hat industry afloat.
[Epic 4G General] sherm420:
landline. if you port your number to gv, people calling you will be routed to the (ported) gv number, which currently is considered a land line. a friend of mine was so excited he got in on the beta until i buzzkilled him. he re-ported back to sprint right afterwards. the tech on the line confirmed i was right and was like "i knew this was going to be a big problem".

this is no different from people calling your (current) un-ported gv number and it being routed to your sprint number (and in effect this the same mechanism minus one "extra" number).

i dont know exactly how google routs voice but they must be hitting POTS somewhere. my guess is Cell -> POTS -> Server farm ->VOIP ->POTS? ->Cell.

one byproduct of a system such as this is noticeable latency.

did google purchase spectrum a few years ago? if so perhaps they are gearing up to bypass POTS (or purchase a cellular company...)

personally, im sticking with using gv for international calls, even though the quality is pretty bad.

for those a bit wet behind the ears, POTS = plain old telephone system.
[Epic 4G General] bjhill2112:
I'm keeping mine separate for now too. I have my VM auto forwarded and that's pretty much all I care about.
[Epic 4G General] whooda:
has anyone tried using a ipod googlevoice app to make calls with your sprint number? I just merged my sprint number with google voice and I like it. Now I can still make and receive calls from my computer when flashing my phone.

Its a flashers dream
[Epic 4G General] daddymikey1975:
but the problem w/ Gvoice integration is that when u use the GV number to call another cell phone, it's not considered m2m any longer.. it's landline minutes and I have a finite supply of those (as i'm sure others do too LOL)..
[Epic 4G General] RandomKing:
Alright fellas, here goes.

I have been a Google Voice user since the original beta test. I am also one of the few who was lucky enough to combine it with their old Gizmo5 service for free calls on other devices. I received my beta test of this service a month ago, tested it, and subsequently abandoned it after 3 hours. That said, it's incredibly easy to revert and you will be given a couple months to test it out before losing your existing Google Voice number.

Benefits:

If you're already a Google Voice user, you likely know the benefits, as they haven't really changed. Any phone call made to your GV number will ring any phone that you want, and can even be adjusted with screening and schedule settings. What's changed is that your GV number can be changed to your cell number, and instead of having 2 numbers, people can call your cell number directly to achieve all of this. Text messages will all go through GV first and appear in your inbox, where you cannot turn this feature off. This means that your computer, your iTouch, your Galaxy Tab, and your Xoom can now all use the GV app and send and receive texts as if they were coming from your Sprint phone. MMS messages will only go to your phone, and you have to enable messages to your phone first under the Phones settings. Convenient if you like to not always pull out your phone while on other devices. Using GV dialing through either the app or a similar dialer on any of those devices, my favorite being my iTouch, GV can connect calls to a VOIP application with a free sip service(like Sipgate) to allow other devices to make free calls using your one-and-only Sprint number. Acrobits softphone on IOS and Android incorporates the GV dialer in and can essentially dial itself to make these free calls, removing intermediary steps. So in short, almost any device that can utilize GV can now text and call identically to your phone. From Sprint:

"Google Voice replaces Sprint voicemail (pressing one on your phone links you to your Google Voicemail) and international calls made from the Sprint phone will be connected by Google Voice. Integrating your account with Sprint means you will still get the benefits of Any Mobile Any Time if that is included in your service plan."

Downsides:

I mentioned the word "directly". This is a misnomer. All calls and texts and voicemail now essentially filter through Google's system before connecting to your phone. This actually doesn't have many drawbacks, texts and calls aren't inhibited in any noticeable way. Your messages will all be backed up on the GV website and accessible by any GV app, unless you don't like that.

Now if you're happy with letting all your info pass through and store on Google and want to text and call on every iPod Touch, computer, and Xoom with one Sprint number to rule them all, then this is the service for you! Just be sure to select the option to keep your Sprint number, not port your GV number.
[Epic 4G General] DTgreat:
That's not true at all.
[Epic 4G General] DTgreat:
Just like to make it very clear, Sprint Integration and number porting are two very very different options. ;)
[Epic 4G General] RandomKing:
We're only talking about Sprint Integration here with the option of porting your GV number to your Sprint phone or your Sprint number to your GV account in the process :p.

Edit: Upon new research, I found my previous info incorrect and made adjustments to its accuracy! I mentioned I hadn't tried in a month. Sprint has clarified to the contrary and we get to keep our mobile-mobile, I am very happy indeed!
[Epic 4G General] wto605:
Support

When I signed up (or when I got the email telling me it was available) I was explicitly told ALL (stores, phone, etc.) Sprint support channels are NOT aware of or supporting this integration. This email and the support link they gave me was from Google.

Once I got my email I logged in and the screen was there saying "you have a sprint phone number, set up integration now" etc. and the process completed without talking to sprint at all... just had to receive a call and enter one of their codes. If this isn't the process you're going through you're probably doing it wrong. (Users who don't already have Google Voice it will be a little different because you'll be signing up and entering your phone number, but the basic process of getting the integration should be short simple and not contain any promises of handing over your firstborn).

On a side note: I thought when you signed up for this texts were supposed to go to both GV and your phone but I've only been getting them in voice. Anyone else seen this?
[Epic 4G General] nutz4cycling:
This is an option you can control from the phone settings on the google voice website. I recently switched my setup so that I get texts on my phone, and disabled the notifications from the voice app.
[Epic 4G General] wto605:
Ah ha! I found the setting, it's under the phones settings. Were you able to disable the android GV notifications for texts only? I'd still want VM and missed call notifications.
[Epic 4G General] jsheahawk:
I guess I don't see how this is different than what I'm doing now. I have GV set up to handle my VM, and I use the GV app to get texts (no MMS) via my GV number. Is this just porting my Sprint number to GV?

I also receive international texts. Currently, I can receive but not sent via GV (that was a ****ty day when they quietly changed that). Has this been changed?
[Epic 4G General] wto605:
The big thing is if you want your sprint number to become your google voice number without porting ($20 fee form google and ETF if your contract isn't up).

You can also "simplify" your setup by getting rid of your sprint number and using it through your google voice number... not sure what the advantage is there but I fell in the former category.
[Epic 4G General] RandomKing:
The biggest feature would be if you use GV and want to keep your Sprint number, you can make them one and the same number now.

OR if you want to use other devices to handle calls/texts like your iPad, iTouch, laptop, Xoom, or anything with Voip and Gv, you can now use those devices as if they were your phone. Again, instead of two numbers for people to keep track of, one number to rule them all.
[Epic 4G General] lloydcabraham:
I'm just a little confused on 1 aspect. Right now I use Google voice callback in conjunction with Sprint's phone to home service @ $5/month so I can avoid none mobile to mobile charges. My Google voice callback number is different from my Sprint number. If I use my Sprint number as my GV number, how do I set it up so that I don't get charged for non mobile to mobile calls? I mean, it'll look silly if I call Sprint up and ask them to make my phone to home number the same as my cell?

I hope this isn't confusing?
[Epic 4G General] wto605:
This eliminates that loop-hole
[Epic 4G General] lloydcabraham:
I'm sorry, does that mean that I can no longer use Google Voice callback and will be charged on landline to mobile calls (if I use integration with Sprint number) or does it mean that I can get rid of Google Voice callback, remove the $5 Phone to home charge, integrate my Sprint number over and not be charged on calls from landlines?
[Epic 4G General] wto605:
My fault, I wasn't clear: with integration you will be charged minutes for call to/from landlines... if you are successfully using your google voice number to avoid minute charges stick with that.
[Epic 4G General] lloydcabraham:
Okay, now I get it.thanks for clearing that up.
[Epic 4G General] Masterface7:
Can someone help me activate this? I can't figure out how to do it. It seems to me like I don't have the option. I attached a picture showing my settings page. Also IU have logged out and back in and i am never presented with the pop up asking about the sprint stuff
[Epic 4G General] wto605:
I wouldn't know what to tell you... once my account became eligible (I think it's based on when you got GV) I logged in and got a prompt... maybe it hasn't reached your account yet?
[Epic 4G General] Masterface7:
well I am gonna blame sprint, just because.

I have had google voice since it was grand central station.
[Epic 4G General] jaygraffix:
I thought that all phones were able to do this? I've been on google voice for a long time now and I get this message when I try to integrate it with my sprint number.

"Unfortunately, Google Voice cannot be enabled on this Sprint phone. Please contact Sprint for more details as to why this cannot be enabled."

Is this only for people that are not under contract or what?? I hate calling them cause I'm always on hold, but I may have to in order to find out why....
[Epic 4G General] Durmant:
I am having the same issue.....the online sprint chat was not any help :-/
[Epic 4G General] jaygraffix:
Ok I just got of the phone with the Sprint Rep. and he said that according to his instructions that I was supposed to click on the change/port and go through that step. I asked him about the contract termination and he said that wouldn't happen. I also asked about my Sprint number being something different since Google would now have my mobile number and he said that the number would be the same for both. I'm really confused about this so I didn't proceed with it. Also another thing to keep in mind is by doing that google charges you $20.00 which I thought wasn't supposed to happen?? Maybe he didn't know what he was talking about??? But he did put me on hold a few times to check with his colleagues and they all said to do it this way.... What gives?? And why is there a link for integration and why does mine say it can't be done?
[Epic 4G General] wto605:
READ THIS

EDIT: Looks like voice is live to the masses:

http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/google-voice-and-sprint-integration-is.html

The instructions/help page is here http://www.google.com/googlevoice/sprint/
[Epic 4G General] abrognlie:
So I got the official email saying my number was ready to use with Google voice, but I still only have the option to "port" my number, not use it as my GV number with no charges. Anyone else run into this? Do I just need to give the system a little more time?
[Epic 4G General] wto605:
I stand corrected, I just saw the blog post from this morning about integration going live for all. Check out the help page here http://www.google.com/googlevoice/sprint/
[Epic 4G General] jaygraffix:
I got the email saying that this can be done but yet I still get the message

"Unfortunately, Google Voice cannot be enabled on this Sprint phone. Please contact Sprint for more details as to why this cannot be enabled."

I've posted this before and someone said I was whining..Well I'm whining some more cause people have been doing this and yet I'm stuck and the damn thing won't work. And like I said when I call Sprint all they know about is PORTING!!! This is so lame, has anyone else still coming accross this issue?!!?!!
[Epic 4G General] lloydcabraham:
I've got this issue also. Do you by chance have Sprints to Home option? Or are you rooted with ACS (Syndicate) rom?
[Epic 4G General] maghig:
My brother is running a stock EVO and he got the invite. I tried to integrate mine and got the same error as above telling me to contact Sprint for more info. I did and they didn't know squat.

I suspect it might be something with custom roms.

I'm running Syndicate
[Epic 4G General] lloydcabraham:
Maybe a Syndicate issue?
[Epic 4G General] jaygraffix:
I have the EC05 Stock rom, rooted with the one click...but that shouldn't even matter since all this stuff is done on google.com/voice. The option comes up next to my mobile number saying check for integration but it just gives me that message. And from what I know of this account has NO discounts. Cause I've heard rumors about discounts causing the problems.
[Epic 4G General] abrognlie:
I just got off the phone with Sprint regarding the "Unfortunately, Google Voice cannot be enabled on this Sprint phone. Please contact Sprint for more details as to why this cannot be enabled." message...

The guy I talked to said that Google is only allowing a certain number of numbers to be activated per day, and that today might be full up (which sounds plausible, since today is when it first went live for everyone). I don't know if he is blowing smoke, but all I can do is try again tomorrow.
[Epic 4G General] lloydcabraham:
Okay, I'll buy that.
[Epic 4G General] T-980:
Well, I intergrated last night and everything is smoothing itself out...other then Google Voice will still notify me when I get a text along with Handscent. I have one major question though before I will be fully happy.

Does this mean people can send MMS to my google voice number?
[Epic 4G General] GituSum:
I just switched my sprint number over today and seems good. I deleted the google voice app from the phone and the vm are coming through the stock sms. :) And now I can have my call blocking is back. :D Everything seems to be working fine, vm, sms and mms.
[Epic 4G General] || Acer ||:
Just integrated 10 minutes ago. Works great :D
[Epic 4G General] wto605:
I had this for a few hours... it eventually went away.

As for the MMS... I haven't tried it, but according to a support document I saw MMS will pass through to your phone's messaging provider.

Regardless you can always send SMS and MMS from your phone. SMS will show up as outgoing in google voice, MMS will not be recorded.
[Epic 4G General] Blackhawk163:
I was told this is the reason that I can't get my number integrated, because of my discount that I receive at my work. I'll buy that excuse until someone here who gets a state discount is able to integrate, then it's back on the phone with Sprint for me.
[Epic 4G General] DNicolasL:
I get a work discount and I can't get the integration to work. I called Sprint and they said it should work as my account isn't classified as corporate.
[Epic 4G General] abrognlie:
The discount thing could be a problem for me as well. I wish Sprint could get their act together, or at least their story straight.
[Epic 4G General] erkme73:
I got my official notification email today from Google. When I log into my GV settings page, under phones, I have the "Sprint logo: Google Voice Enabled" next to my cell number. However, when I call my cell phone number, it only rings the phone. Without conditional forwarding turned on, it goes to Sprint's standard voicemail.

So it's clear that my GV integration, despite the settings page, is really NOT enabled. So, when I click the "disable" button, to try and start over, I get "There was an error with your request. Please try again."

I've attached screen shots. Sprint's tech support said I had to wipe my phone. I resisted, but figuring it was the path of least resistance, I did. Of course, no difference.

I tried deleting the phone - and get the same error. I then signed up a for a new GV account, and tried adding my cell to it, but there, it recognized that the phone is already used by another GV account.

I'm stuck in a catch-22. My callers still get my GV voicemail - so long as I have conditional forwarding on, but I can't take advantage of all the 'benefits' of the incoming calls being routed through GV.

Any ideas on how to break this cycle?
[Epic 4G General] wto605:
Are you trying for option 1 or 2?
[Epic 4G General] wto605:
My integration worked (was even in the early rounds). here are my plan details:

-An additional line on an "everything data" plan

-My line is NOT the premier line for this family group

-We DO have an employee discount (personal account, show them your badge and get ~10-20% off depending on the employer) applied to this account.

That's all I can think of that is relevant.

I just looked at another line on this account and got as far as the choice between option 1 and option 2... if this isn't far enough to test it I'm sorry... but we don't actually want to set this up on this line (yet). The details for that line:

-Simply Everything plan (not family)

-Premier Line

-Employee discount on the account (as above), but discounts do not apply to simply everything plans.

-Phone is a Blackberry Style