Pining for Visual Voicemail on the Pre? We don't have it quite yet, but the Google Voice Blog brings good news: they've made it easier for you to replace your Sprint voicemail with theirs. This will get you (comically bad) transcriptions, email and sms alerts, and more. It's quite nice. Technically, using Google Voice for your voicemail isn't a new feature, but getting it set up before was quite a hassle.
Here's the bad news: Sprint currently charges $.20 per call per minute (thanks amateurhack!) to forward calls. This means yours truly had to give up his plan to switch to GV with a magical call/sms forwarding scheme (weep for your blogger), but what it really means for you is that it's going to cost you a fifth of a buck to get a voicemail on this system. Luckily, per Syph on Twitter, it looks like Sprint is going to take the ax to that silly charge soon:
The Palm Pre is a great Google Voice platform thanks to apps like dkGoogleVoice and gDial Pro, so if you have an invite it's worth considering. Speaking of Google Voice invites, we gave three away last week during our live PalmCast: Congrats to Ronald, Mark, and Tony!
Update: Rick lets us know that Google and Sprint have announced "conditional free call forwarding," which is a roundabout way of saying Sprint will still charge the $.20 per minute on forwarded calls -- but not calls forwarded to Google Voice. They're rolling it out across accounts now, should be finished by mid-November.
Comments
Dieter, please let us know as soon as you find out when they drop the $.20. I just called Sprint and they had no new info on when or even the fact that they will be axing the cost.
Can you send me an invite to google voice. my email is thegoldguys@gmx.com
Read this -
http://search.sprint.com/inquiraapp/ui.jsp?ui_mode=question&charset=iso-...
and this -
http://www.google.com/voice/sprint?id16=google+voice
Actually, Sprint charges $.20 PER MINUTE to forward calls.
http://support.sprint.com/support/article/Find_out_more_about_call_forwa...
Yeah, I imagined the doomsday scenario when I heard about this. My brother-in-law calls my forwarded cell phone; my wife answers at home; the conversation spreads to my wife's whole family who are visiting at his house; 14hrs later, I arrive home... and she's STILL on the phone.
I'll pass for now. =)
That makes it worse doesn't it? Every call that is forwarded to your voicemail will cost AT LEAST $0.20 and if they leave a message for longer than a minute it will cost even more.
How i wish sprint cancels that fees!!!
FYI: i use google voice number to send free international sms. One reason why i jumped on Google voice.
how about the ability to just cancel the sprint voicemail all together? Makes sense, but they do not allow it on the plan I am on...
Cancellation of voicemail is possible on any Sprint plan, you just have to get ahold of the right person. I would suggest asking for Tech Support, Account Services or Retentions. Your first line CS person will probably not be able to do it.
thanks, I will try again and let you know how it goes....
You guys give far too much information to Google.
and you give too much money for services. Whats your point?
GV will be my REAL phone number, as soon as they give us number portability. THAT's what I'm anxious for!!
GV has made my life easier.
Good god, thanks for the warning. I immediately turned on my Google voicemail earlier, but it's so turned off right now. Grr.
now that you've shown that the 20 cent forwarding charge deters users from using google voicemail I'd guess sprint will keep the charge to keep customers in it's system.
Not necessarily. I think this will encourage keeping Sprint as the primary number that people call, and only voicemail will be moved to Google, keeping voice calls and SMS on the Sprint network.
I wouldn't be surprised if Sprint would be fine with moving all voicemail off of their systems, as any reduction is voicemail usage reduces their cost (less beefy voicemail system, less storage, etc).
Syntactix has it on good account that Sprint will be removing the charge soon, but have no idea when. We are currently working on visual voicemail for WebOS with YouMail. I will post some screens in the Syntactix forum tonight.
Since when is Youmail itself free, by the way? I'd always thought it cost money.
Also, just a suggestion, I'd suggest thinking about a patch to 'hijack' the voicemail button to send the user directly to your app.
I admit I don't know much about how this works exactly so...
This charge only comes in when someone leaves a voicemail? You aren't charged if you answer a call?
Currently, you get charged $0.20/min per forwarded call on busy or no answer... so if your phone is off or you're out of coverage, you're gonna get taxed. If you're wealthy, this could be an option. Not for me.
guess my 3 invites I have sitting will be worth something.
http://newsreleases.sprint.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=127149&p=irol-newsArticle...
Says mid-November they'll be removing the charge.
I was just about to post the above link to the press release from Sprint today. Looks like Google Voice will be mine soon...
Can someone invite me please - my email is thegoldguys@gmx.com
November 8th is the date released on a Sprint internal memo that conditional call forwarding will be free (ie *28)
This is true for both the everything data 450 plan, the everything data 900, and the simply everything plan. Then, in late November, the simply everything plan will include unconditional call forwarding.
I recently deactivated Gvoicemail to my pre. But now when someone calls my google number, it goes to my pre's voicemail. Before it just went straight to googlevoice mail. Is there a way to change this back?
has anyone tried this yet with the Sprint and verified the bill? From the tutorial, it looks like there 'may be charges'.
Should I play it safe and wait until mid-november?
Ok, I'm officially confused. I have a Pre, I have a GV # that forwards calls to my Pre and to my wifes BB. I checked on sprint with my current bill and usage and do not see any added charges when someone has called the GV #. I also do not see any note of forwarded calls in relation to VM I've received on GV. Am I just reading things wrong? I am taking this as any VM I receive on my google voice account via my google voice number is charged .20 to my sprint bill as a forwarded call? Really... I'm not that stupid and this cold can't be clouding my head that much, but I just don't seem to understand EXACTLY what the .20 charge is for?
I have so many other questions I don't know where to begin!!!
Wait! Is it like this... I receive a call (from any number) and via a tweek/hack/app/or whatever you want to call it, my call is forwarded to my Google Voice # or GVmail after a set amount of time or the push of a button, and said caller leaves a message via the forwarded call?
This I could understand and can see a charge for because an incoming call was forwarded to another number. But using the Google voice number and account without this "hack" has no effect on your sprint account as it is just an incoming call?
yeah, you basically got it.
Answered my own Question, thank goodness I've got some free time to look it up. Still not the easiest info to find.
Direct from Google...
Voicemail: Effect on mobile minutes/charges
The Google Voice service, besides international calling, is free.
However, using Google Voice as your voicemail for your mobile phone will require you to forward calls to Google Voice. You may incur carrier charges from your carrier for using this service, please check with your carrier directly for more information.
This was one of the main reason I left Sprint after having the pre for 5 days.
The charges are 20 cents per minute. I use youmail. Everytime it forward a call (which is every time you dont pick up the phone, or hit ignore, or out of reception so it sends it straight to vm), it charges you a minute.
I wouldnt care if they charged me minutes to do this, but not $.
Sprint need to get their act together like the rest of the companies that don't charge for it.
Well... now you can come back!
Drop the charge or don't. I like using a regular phone better than cell when possible. Definitely easier to hear, and easier to hold. I get horrible sprint reception in my house, so would like to forward to my land line when I'm in the house. This conditional forwarding is stupid. People will circumvent the restriction simply by setting 'do not disturb' on their cell and forwarding to the google voice number (which in turn forwards home) anyway. So why not just make it free, period, and eliminate that extra hop?
This from Sprint support online hot off the presses. November 8th they go live. Make sure to call/chat with a rep on the 8th or 9th to confirm your account has been modified. It is automatic and they ALL *should* be setup for free conditional call forwarding on that day.
Chat Transcript from Sprint.com
----------------------------
I apologize that will be available on 11/08/2009. You will be able to use the *72 to use the service currently, Then after the 11/08/2009 this service will be available.
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I have gvoice invites. Will trade for gwave.
PM me.
maybe its me but some people seem confused about the whole Google Voice thing. I dont get the whole using Google Voice as your voicemail and forwarding calls. If you give your GVoice number out and someone calls it and you dont pick up they leave a vm on the google system, you will either get a text or email notification or both depending on your settings w/ a transcript.
You can then call your GVoice number to listen to your voicemail no forwarding needed, unlike Youmail, where you had to change the number for voicemail to go too, you dont HAVE to do that w/ GVoice, just keep it simple, program your GVoice number in your phone and when you get a notification just call and follow the steps to retrieve the message, that is if you dont get a transcript or it doesnt make any sense.
This applies for people who want to keep their Sprint number as their primary, possibly even not wanting to port it (because of the Sprint Any Mobile, Any Time feature), but want to use Google for their Voicemail instead of Sprint.
This is great for me, one of the primary reasons I want Google Voice is for email transcriptions (preferably for free). A backup reason is for the rare occasion I want international SMS/text, but I now don't want to switch completely so that Sprint Any Mobile Any Time applies.
...ok just read the google blog...this article wasnt clear on the fact that you were keeping your number and didnt have a Google Voice number..which i do...so ok now that makes sense...
Do we have any visual voicemail app yet? Basically I want Google Voice only for that - cuz I don't wanna give out another phone number to everybody.
PS - I already have Google Voice; I just don't wanna use it until I have visual voicemail available.
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