I have WiFi at home. Could I use a smartphone with no plan and make free calls over my WiFi via google voice? Or is Google Voice just a set of features that work on top of an existing plan?
You can use google voice to make and receive calls through your PC without having any sort of cell plan.
You currently need a working phone of any type. Cell, landline, or VoIP.
My GoogleVoice number used to go to my landline, which has since been replaced by a connection via voip.ms. (Real cheap and all that. I also have my ATA device, Cisco PAP2AT, plugged into my old house wire, with a crossover cable, so that my home phones work like before.)
This is required if you want an actual working telephone number that people can call. (As opposed to PC-to-PC stuff.)
But then you really don’t need GoogleVoice at that point. It is handy for a few things though.
Google bought a company that handed out free DID numbers for a while but then closed that down. Shame.
(And yes, I found out about doing this from the 'Dope. Sweet.)
If you have a Gingerbread (Android 2.3) phone, you can set up the default SIP client (which is relatively well integrated into the normal dialer) to use a SIP account (like sipgate one) that allows free incoming calls. Then you can configure Google Voice Callback (the 3rd party app) to call you back on your SIP line. I’ve played with it a bit, and it works, but there is a lot of lag using SIP + Google Voice which makes it nearly unusable for a two-way conversation. Other SIP clients like Fring aren’t any better, but it could very well be either the cheap SIP service or the Google Voice passthrough that adds the lag.
I understand that you can also use Talkatone with an iPhone/iPod Touch to make free calls via Google Voice. It is apparently a much more solid application than the Android hack I describe above. When Talkatone is released for Android, I will be all over it!
In either situation, free texting via Google Voice is handy.
ETA: When someone releases an Android SIP client for Microsoft Office Communicator/Lync, that will be a true game changer! I love my softphone, and wish I could use it more.
iirc you could make calls from your pc to phones via headset + mic on your pc. I have done so in the past but not sure if its still live, its cool talking to peeps on the phone from your pc
You can do that using Skype, Google Talk or a number of other services. Google Talk does let you do it for free though (within the US).
You can using one of the apps mentioned above, but it is hacky. The best way to do it that I know of costs like $4.95/mo (up to like 3000 minutes I think).
Sign up for voip.ms. Sign up for a phone number from them in one of the cheapest area codes, pay the two extra dollars for the incoming call minutes package. ($2.95 for the number + $2 for the minutes).
Use a SIP client on your smartphone to connect to the voip.ms account.
Sign up for google voice. Put your voip.ms number into google voice and give that number to no one else.
Incoming calls will ring the SIP client on your smartphone and will be included in your incoming call minutes.
For outgoing calls, log in to google voice (on the web) and click the call button on the top left. Google voice calls you and the other party at the same time, you pick up the phone to talk and it is using incoming minutes.
You don’t need a phone at all. I don’t. Well, I do, but they’re telephone non grata or something like that, because Google Voice doesn’t work outside of the USA. Except over the VPN. But still no forwarding to foreign numbers. I transferred our AT&T cellular numbers to our Google Voice accounts, and we have no linked phones. All calls to our old number go right to voicemail, and transcripts get emailed to us. With the VPN, I can make calls right from Gmail, though.
You need to have a SIP client running on the phone, and there are several free ones in the market.
But unfortunately, you cannot register the SIP client directly with Google Voice anymore, but you can use Sipgate.com as Aestivalis described.
Unfortunately, not all devices with 2.3 have the SIP client, goddamn Verizon stripped it out of the version they sent to my Droid X.
I used this device at home:
and have an old analog phone attached, works quite well. The sound quality is perfect, it sounds like a land line. And it register directly with Google Voice, so it removes the need to use Sipgate or another service.
But I have to warn you that I’ve been having a lot of 1-way-speech problems with Google Voice lately. It doesn’t matter how I make the call, whether it’s with the ObiHai or my mobile, when I make a GV call to my mom she cannot hear me but I can hear her. And being a free service, there is almost zero support for solving this type of issue.
I do this all the time with an old iPhone on a 10¢ per minute GoPhone plan.
GoogleVoice and GoogleTalk (free) in combination with an App called Talkatone let me make and receive free US voice calls. There are a few moving parts here:
GoogleTalk is a browser plugin that lets you make voice or video calls and text chat from your computer.
Talkatone and similar Apps let you use a smartphone/tablet to use GoogleTalk for voice calls over WiFi or 3G.
GoogleVoice is a service that I see as a supercharged answering machine/call forwarder with very low rates for international calls. With the account, you get an additional phone number (perhaps not in your area code, but who cares these days).
When people call that number, you can have it ring any of your other phones - including GoogleTalk. It can also record an unanswered call, transcribe it to an email or text message. You can then get all of your messages from any computer.
GV also has Apps for smartphones that allows access to messages and to send text messages. It can also initiate a voice call using what it calls ‘Click2Call’ which let’s you dial out with GV, but it then calls you back on you cell and then connects (turning a long distance call into a local one). It is NOT a VOIP service like Skype - for that, you need something like TalkaTone.
Since my last post on this topic, Talkatoneis now available on Android. It works for both outgoing and incoming calls, as long as it has been set up properly with Google Voice/Talk. There is a little lag, as with most VOIP apps, but it works well enough, and if you add . T-Mobile and Facebook provide a similar service for outgoing calls through the Bobsled Calling app, but I don’t think you get incoming calls.
I used to think the same thing (and got a GV number with an area code outside my time zone) but I found that it does matter what your area code is and my choice caused continued issues for me.
People (and systems) still think in terms of area codes and if you have a number with an area code outside the one you live in and more than a little bit (the next state or more), people treat you differently sometimes, even though cellphones are quite prevalent and people do relocate often.
Also, you will find some companies base their support for services to you from the area code of your contact number and your calls may be routed to an area outside of your time zone and where the support staff won’t be able to help you because their call center is only setup to handle their time zone customers and not any others (AT&T is a good example of this setup).
Also, if you get a West coast area code and live on the East coast, you will get mis-dialed calls after you’ve gone to bed, which will be annoying after a few times.
You can still choose a GV number in your area code, so there is no need to get one that is way outside it.
I also wanted to mention that I am successfully using GV with Talkatone / Groove IP to make and receive calls when I am in a WiFi zone.
I am also going to get a free broadband service called freedom pop, which gives you 500MB of data, free of charge per month.
This might not be enough data for some people but it is works for my level of phone calls on the move (the only way I would use the capacity of MB in the plan) and when I am outside a WiFi zone, I will thus soon be able to use my smartphone to make and receive calls anywhere, all completely free of charge.
Freedom pop does charge a deposit for the device but it is fully refundable. Also, they hope you will go over the 500MB limit and use additional space, at 1p per MB.
They do have other plans for monthly fees if you want it.
I am using Groove IP with success to make free calls via Google Voice on my Android phone. My tablet was pretty laggy with Groove IP, but my Motorola Photon works well with it. I have it set so when I make a phone call I get asked whether I want to use cell network or Google Voice.