SMS GV Extension

[Bill McNeal]

I got this app over the weekend, and I've gotta give it a plug. If you use Google voice for text messaging on an iPhone you must get this. It seamlessly sends all of your GV messages to your SMS app on your iPhone using email rather than SMS. I've used GVmobile+, mail.app, the Google voice web app, along with prowl notifications to do my Google voice texting and it was serviceable, but far from elegant. This is by far the best solution to using GV texts on an iPhone, the only downside is no MMS, but that is due to GV not supporting it. Setup was bit of a pain, it did take quite a while for me to get it to the point where the SMS would show up in the app, even though I followed the directions to a T, I wound up having to uninstall and re-install, but once I did that, it worked perfectly.

It costs $2.99 for the full version, if you don't pay for the full version you can send texts through the SMS app using GV, but they won't come into the SMS app.

Check out the website: SMS GV Extension | Home I'm saving $30/month with Google voice, and this makes it so much better and easier, can't say enough good things about it, the dev is on twitter and responds quickly to questions to help you get it setup correctly. love this app.

 

[macharborguy]

The only problem I have with this app is that received text messages show a strange phone number

 

[Bill McNeal]

I read about that on twitter, I have not had an issue with that at all, once I got the messages to come in through the messaging app everything has gone to the right spot. Have you saved your contacts in GV? I've read that that may be an issue, or try re-installing maybe, it worked for me at least.

 

[macharborguy]

I read about that on twitter, I have not had an issue with that at all, once I got the messages to come in through the messaging app everything has gone to the right spot. Have you saved your contacts in GV? I've read that that may be an issue, or try re-installing maybe, it worked for me at least.

no, i don't have all of them saved in Google Voice. the weird part is that the number that i receive the texts from REDIRECTS to the actual phone number.

my friends phone number is 1-231-2XX-XXXX
the number GV spits back at me and properly redirects when I call it is 1-786-3XX-XXXX

it makes me wonder why google not only has a "Google Voice" number for a user, but a redirection number for non users (my friend is NOT a google voice, or even a google.com user. yes, they do exist, lol).

 

[puffdc]

I just installed the full version...what exactly do you have to do to set it up?

 

[Bill McNeal]

I just installed the full version...what exactly do you have to do to set it up?

SMS GV Extension | Support

I followed these instructions exactly, and like I said I had to reinstall after purchasing the license to get it to work, but after that it's been flawless. I'm now using BiteSMS as well and it works even showing the pictures in my contact list.

 

[Bill McNeal]

no, i don't have all of them saved in Google Voice. the weird part is that the number that i receive the texts from REDIRECTS to the actual phone number.

my friends phone number is 1-231-2XX-XXXX
the number GV spits back at me and properly redirects when I call it is 1-786-3XX-XXXX

it makes me wonder why google not only has a "Google Voice" number for a user, but a redirection number for non users (my friend is NOT a google voice, or even a google.com user. yes, they do exist, lol).

hmm... someone in the twitter feed is having the same issue

Twitter

check that out, and the dev does reply on twitter, you could try asking him

 

[lionelhuts]

no, i don't have all of them saved in Google Voice. the weird part is that the number that i receive the texts from REDIRECTS to the actual phone number.

my friends phone number is 1-231-2XX-XXXX
the number GV spits back at me and properly redirects when I call it is 1-786-3XX-XXXX

it makes me wonder why google not only has a "Google Voice" number for a user, but a redirection number for non users (my friend is NOT a google voice, or even a google.com user. yes, they do exist, lol).

You need to disable SMS forwarding to your phone in your GV account settings.

In GV, go to settings > Voice Settings > Click "Edit" under your mobile phone > UNCHECK "Receive text messages on this phone" > Save

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As for the app, I was just about to buy it, then I read the setup instructions at the developer's website.

This unfortunately seems to indicate that for every text message received, the phone will also buzz. I already have my Inbox set up for new push notifications. So how will I be able to differentiate a new text from just a new email? I guess I'll be sticking with TextNow for GV text messages. While TextNow is awesome, I was looking forward to using BiteSMS for instant replies .

 

[Bill McNeal]

You need to disable SMS forwarding to your phone in your GV account settings.

In GV, go to settings > Voice Settings > Click "Edit" under your mobile phone > UNCHECK "Receive text messages on this phone" > Save

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As for the app, I was just about to buy it, then I read the setup instructions at the developer's website.

This unfortunately seems to indicate that for every text message received, the phone will also buzz. I already have my Inbox set up for new push notifications. So how will I be able to differentiate a new text from just a new email? I guess I'll be sticking with TextNow for GV text messages. While TextNow is awesome, I was looking forward to using BiteSMS for instant replies .

FWIW, I hear my phone buzz, then a beat or 2 later, it will buzz again and the screen lights up showing the new text message on the lock screen. If you set it up to skip the inbox etc. then it won't show up in your inbox but you'll be notified of the new text.

 

[macharborguy]

You need to disable SMS forwarding to your phone in your GV account settings.

In GV, go to settings > Voice Settings > Click "Edit" under your mobile phone > UNCHECK "Receive text messages on this phone" > Save

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Okay, so i went in and turned that setting off. Now i don't receive GV SMS text messages at all (even via this extension), which was NOT what I want at all.

 

[Bill McNeal]

Okay, so i went in and turned that setting off. Now i don't receive GV SMS text messages at all (even via this extension), which was NOT what I want at all.

That is the issue I was having, I un-installed then re-installed and it worked. maybe give that a try, also there have been quite a few updates over the last few days, maybe just try updating.

 

[kilsey]

Hm, does this extension support MMS? Or only SMS?

 

[kilsey]

Hm, does this extension support MMS? Or only SMS?

Looks like MMS are processed through the phone account, and SMS through GV.

I don't send too many MMS, so I can definitely cut down my SMS/MMS plan and save some money.

Great extension

 

[kilsey]

Also, key point for setup - you will likely want to have the Google Voice app installed, with Alerts enabled under the notifications settings. This allows the Txts to show up in the Messages app.

 

[epiphenie]

Sending Problem Resolved

Users with secure Google password (ones with symbols like "&") - you will have to remove the symbols from your password to be able to send using SMS GV Extension Version 1.3.1. Hopefully, he'll fix the bug in the future. Unfortunately, it took me 20+ hours of debugging, iPhone restores, and reinstalls to figure this out. Unfortunately, the only customer support the developer seems to provide is license support. I did have no trouble setting up receiving using the developer-provided documentation. It's now working great and there is no better solution. All in all, I was disappointed with the customer support since this was a paid app, but the app itself is worth $3.

 

[kilsey]

As a sidenote, I've had at least two instances where texts didn't arrive, but showed up in the GV app.

I get the feeling that this extension is highly reliant on grabbing the alerts when they come in, so if you're out of coverage for a bit, you may miss a few.

Since it's not working reliably for me, I'm switching back to the official GV app.