Let me first say that I love Google Voice and I love Android. Now with that said, this video is going to demonstrate that despite the nice integration that users have with the Google Voice app on Android — receiving a call may not always be that easy to answer.
In short, in my unscientific testing with my HTC Hero (on Sprint) and my iPhone 3GS (on AT&T) I see a pretty big delay in the time that it takes my Hero to even begin ringing. And in many cases it causes me to miss a call completely.
I wish I could say for sure if this was an Android issue, a Hero issue or an issue with Sprint. But either way, it is less than ideal and at times it has me picking up my iPhone more often than I would hope.
Anyone else seeing delay issues with Android and Google Voice calls?
December 1st, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Yeah – the delay kills me to on incoming – it's great on outgoing though …
is that the washing machine running in the background?
December 1st, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Outgoing is wonderful. What phone/carrier are you using?
And yes, that is the washing machine. Its one of the benefits/annoyances of working from home.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:15 am
Yup same issue.. Big delay while using Google Voice. I’m just going to hang with my Hero/Sprint, wait for the BIG Update and then. Waiting for a 4.3 or bigger screen, 1gzh (snapdragon) or better. So Sprint needs to bring on board the HTC HD2 Windows or Android…. Come on Sprint get in on the “Now Network”.
Thanks everyone for the great info and feedback.
Cheers
cd28rc
December 1st, 2009 at 3:20 pm
I don't think I've had a delay problem with voice on my TMobile My Touch yet. So far it seems to be working great, but I'll explore further now!
December 1st, 2009 at 3:57 pm
There's a huge delay for me on my G1. I have my GV set to forward to my cell phone and house phone when I'm home, but my house phone will ring at least 3 times before the G1 even has a clue. The delay is so long that a lot of incoming calls go straight to voice mail because I never have time to answer the phone.
December 1st, 2009 at 4:50 pm
I actually discovered this last night. I have a HTC Hero on Sprint with Google Voice handling my voicemail. I had misplaced my phone and was attempting to located it by calling from my wife's phone. The best I could get was one ring on any given call. It's given me second thoughts about this setup. Google Voice must be the culprit though as I never had this issue before switching over to it for my voicemail.
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December 1st, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Old news, at least to me. From what I know this is not device specific either. Seems to be an issue when GV routes to a mobile. It is definitely an problem, but not worth me shutting off the GV routing. It is not the GV app.
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December 1st, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I have a droid and it only has a short one ring delay when using GV
December 1st, 2009 at 5:48 pm
I have it set to forward the call to my cell number since I never get close to going over in minutes. I get about a 1/2 ring delay.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:21 pm
I only have the one phone, so delay unknown, but on my tmobile g1 google voice sometimes will refuse to place a series of calls prompting me to click retry without… this is especially anoying after listening the phone for 2 minutes and wondering why it hasn’t started ringing! But google voice’s transcribing and web based vm balance out this inconvience
December 1st, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Yes same problem here. I'm having a myTouch 3G from T-Mobile
December 1st, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Tmobile mytouch 3g has the same issue for me. Of course it is a good excuse to let voicemail get all my calls and screen them.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Yes. Same exact experience.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:06 pm
haven't noticed the ring delay as such (hate calls anyway).
biggest problem that I (and 2 friends also with g1) have had – local google voice application totally failing to do its poll up to the mothership and when i hand check suddenly i have 5 messages
im going to switch the notice to sms and see if thats more reliable
December 1st, 2009 at 5:02 pm
I have seen this issue on my G1 for a while. Even sent Google feedback. Waiting for a fix…
December 1st, 2009 at 11:27 pm
I have GV on my Droid, and it seems to have no delay when making or receiving calls from/to my GV number, except for this: If I call my wife’s Droid using my GV number, it sounds on my end like it’s ringing, but her phone doesn’t ring until 57 seconds have passed. Calling from my real number sees no such delay.
December 2nd, 2009 at 7:55 am
Google Voice slowed down the ring time on my G1 so bad that I had to uninstall it, even if it was just a call to my regular cell number. I'm not impressed with Google Voice so far, and actually, I'm not all that impressed with a lot of things Google lately. I dunno….maybe it's the cynic in me, but I'm tempted to run from Google as fast I can lately. Tracfone might be my next phone carrier with a *shock* regular cell phone.
December 2nd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Do you really need to "run from Google as fast as you can?" One of their many free services is that you can export everything in a few minutes. Technically, can you even run from something that gives you a free vehicle to leave?
Why do I used google products? Because I can access any of them from almost any internet connected device with a browser on the planet. Why don't I have a "regular cell phone?" Because they don't allow me to access all of my data whenever I need it. With the two questions above I bet you can all guess why I have an Android device.
I try to stick with the K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid) philosophy with everything i do. The more you have the more problems you might have. So if you don't need a smart phone, don't have one. I couldn't go back but thats just me.
December 2nd, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Yep yep, i've noticed that on some calls, and not on others. Seems like if someone is calling me from a land line it goes through normally, but if it's cell to cell using my GV number it takes a while. I've missed a few calls like that. They need to get that sorted out. GV is wonderful for outgoing calls though and I love that it uses my data rather than eating up my cell minutes.
December 2nd, 2009 at 3:48 pm
GV slowed down the ring for someone calling your main cell number? That's what I read your statement as, just making sure I read it correctly.
If it didn't have an effect on your main cell number then why uninstall GV? It's a free service and you can still use it for free texting and outgoing calls. I mean, come on, it's a free service man.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:25 pm
As much as I love Google and GV, I can't use it on my G1. I find the latency issues too much to take.
December 3rd, 2009 at 5:10 am
I have also experienced similar problems, but I solve the problem, after updating the system, and may be stability issues.
December 11th, 2009 at 3:18 am
My wife hates it and refuses to use my GV #. A large % of time, her calls to me, from her cell do not ring through…..she'll end up in my GVM. I can't afford to change missing an emergency work call. Oh well.
December 11th, 2009 at 9:13 am
The Google Voice ring delay on my HTC Hero is frustrating. I am going back to my Bberry until droid 2.01 comes out.
December 13th, 2009 at 2:08 am
This is great! i can comment as a guest. Uf. i live in Mexico and work every day in the U.S. We have a G1/Dream and the SIM is on TelCel here in Mexico. It's just a pay-as-you-go "plan". For calls to the U.S. we use WiFi either here at the house or at work + Sipdroid + Gizmo5 (now a Google subsidiary – lol). We got a GV invite but couldn't use it bec. we tried to set it up while we were in Mexico.
Is there any way we can use one of our friend's U.S. numbers to establish a GV account?
Have a great evenining!
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:15 pm
When I first starting using Google Voice with my iPhone, and then with my HTC Hero on Sprint when I ditched the iPhone and AT&T, I had no problems with any ring delay coming from Google Voice. Within the past couple weeks I've noticed a delay in the time it takes my Hero to start ringing when a GV call comes in. Again, this wasn't an issue when I first got the Hero. Now I regularly miss calls because my phone starts to ring and before I can answer it the voicemail has picked up. Annoying.
January 8th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
I know, late to the party with this post but wanted to share some observations:
First off, those who think GV uses data and not minutes – Minutes are used, it only uses the data to make the connection to the GV servers briefly. If you have a MyFaves account on T-Mobile you can set up the GV number as a fave number and get unlimited calls through GV, but Sprint users don't have that option.
Second, I've noticed, with OUT GV, I ring up to 5 times before my phone so much as lights up, and then goes straight to voicemail. It's not a google voice issue (calling phone directly without the GV app installed on the phone) it's a phone/carrier issue (using Sprint Hero.)
Just an FYI..
February 4th, 2010 at 3:09 am
Just reporting that I am having the same issues as you all (big ring delays) for my Nexus One. When I call my cell phone directly, it rings immediately. Either a) Google Voice is delaying calling my cell phone for some reason or b) my network (T-Mobile) is delaying connecting the call. It's not the phone, since when I call directly, I have no issues.
February 6th, 2010 at 7:27 am
I have a fix that worked!! Try this… 1) Log into voice.google.com. 2) Click on 'Settings'. 3) Delete your mobile number (trust me on this one). 4) Click on 'Add another phone' and re-add your mobile number. 5) complete the setting and confirmation process.
Test out the GV # again and see if the delay is gone. It worked me for me and I hope it works for you! Let me know. Good luck!