IF YOU EVER WORRY ABOUT USING UP YOUR 100 MINUTES AND DON'T WANT TO SET UP A SIP ACCOUNT, KEEP READING.
***THIS APPLIES IF YOU HAVE A GOOGLE VOICE NUMBER THAT YOU CONSIDER YOUR PRIMARY NUMBER***
So I know everybody and his/her mothers already knows about the beauty of Tmo's $30 prepaid plan, which comes with 5 GB of LTE data (2G after that), 100 minutes, and unlimited text. I just wanted to add a tip that I thought might come in handy.
My personal situation is the following:
--->Tmo subscriber with Nexus 5 and two phone numbers: Google Voice and Tmo. (I have LTE coverage virtually everywhere I live. No hit or miss.)
--->Ported my old Sprint number over to Google Voice. This is the only number I give out. I don't mind not having full MMS functionality just yet (I can receive MMS from other Tmo subscribers). My Tmo number is just linked to my Google Voice account.
--->I have Hangouts and Google Voice apps/extensions installed everywhere and anywhere: Nexus 10, Nexus 5, laptop, work PC, etc.
--->I have a yearly subscription with Skype ($30/yr) that I use to make calls over LTE. I like the integration with my phone, especially when I use Google to make calls with the "OK Google" detection. The Skype Dialer always comes up as an option, and I'm allowed to decide whether to make calls over Skype or via the phone. (This allows me to show either my Google Voice number or Tmo number).
So my personal setup usually involved answering the calls over Hangouts via my PC, since I always had access to the internet via WiFi or LAN.
But now with the Hangouts and Google Voice integration, I let Hangouts ring whenever people dial my Google Voice number, and I set Google Voice to not ring my personal Tmo number anymore. Whereas I used to debate about whether or not to set up a SIP account, now I don't need one. Hangouts will automatically ring my phone whenever people call my Google Voice number, and whenever I answer the calls, they are automatically answered over LTE. No more worrying about using up my 100 minutes.
This, of course, depends on the user having guaranteed LTE, HSPA+, or even decent 3G everywhere.
With regards to the Skype subscription, I may or may not get rid of it. I like being able to dial using my voice, and the Hangouts Dialer currently doesn't appear as an option for making calls whenever I issue the voice command.
Hope somebody found this useful. Comments welcome.
Been doing something similar since Google updated Hangouts—particularly since my home office is in the basement and I get poor T-Mobile (same prepaid plan) coverage there. Go Google!
BinkXDA said:
Been doing something similar since Google updated Hangouts—particularly since my home office is in the basement and I get poor T-Mobile (same prepaid plan) coverage there. Go Google!
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Sounds like a plan! I just hope that the devs can hammer out a few of the minor issues with Hangouts, specifically the lag. All in good time though. Happy to have what I got so far!
I also disabled forwarding to my sip did and tm #. Hangouts/GV is doing just fine on its own.
Does someone knows if the Google Voice app now can be uninstalled? Will I be able to make and receive calls with my Google voice number from the Hangouts without G.Voice app?
denis_y_s said:
Does someone knows if the Google Voice app now can be uninstalled?
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You shouldn't uninstall the voice app as it's still needed for other apps trying to use a dialer.
jnbanda said:
I just hope that the devs can hammer out a few of the minor issues with Hangouts, specifically the lag.
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Outside of call setup, I have no lag! That said, Hangouts does seem to use FAR more of the battery for calls compared to the built-in Internet calling.
denis_y_s said:
Does someone knows if the Google Voice app now can be uninstalled? Will I be able to make and receive calls with my Google voice number from the Hangouts without G.Voice app?
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I guess it depends on how you want to make and receive calls.
I uninstalled the Google Voice app because it no longer receives my SMS messages. The messages automatically get forwarded to Hangouts.
Furthermore, I don't make calls using the stock dialer app, so I don't have a need to make calls from my phone via Google Voice. (I don't need Google Voice to generate an automatic number for the person I wish to call anymore. This issue led me to saving two numbers for every contact: one labeled as their "true carrier" number, and one labeled as the Google Voice assigned number that I would see on my phone.)
If you still intend to make calls using the stock dialer, I'd say leave Google Voice installed. If you don't plan on making calls through the stock dialer anymore, but instead wish to make and receive calls via Hangouts only, then it should be OK to uninstall.
***NOTE: Be sure to check the two boxes in the Hangouts App settings labeled "Incoming Phone Calls" and "Messages" under
Settings->"[email protected]". If you don't want your phone to ring twice for every call, you need to disable forwarding of calls to your carrier number through the Google Voice website settings, under the tab "Groups & Circles". Be aware that your phone WILL NOT RING THROUGH THE STOCK DIALER APP ANYMORE if you disable the call forwarding. It will ONLY RING THROUGH HANGOUTS, which requires an active internet connection.***
BinkXDA said:
Outside of call setup, I have no lag! That said, Hangouts does seem to use FAR more of the battery for calls compared to the built-in Internet calling.
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Hmmm.. Interesting. The only lag I see is in the amount of time it takes to launch the app and allow me to open up/tap a conversation. At first I had a few crashes when I would try to open up a convo pretty fast, like immediate tapping on the screen as soon as Hangouts launched. The crash issue seems to be resolved with the update. Perhaps it is an issue with my personal setup. I'm running rooted/stock/Franco kernel/Dalvik.
Still uses minutes
I have been making calls through the hangout dialer and have confirmed that the call is going out as my Google Voice number. The problem is that it still uses minutes. I just got off the chat with a rep at T-Mobile and she confirmed that on the $30 T-Mobile plan VOIP and wifi calling still use minutes.
Is there any way around this?
seagood3 said:
I have been making calls through the hangout dialer and have confirmed that the call is going out as my Google Voice number. The problem is that it still uses minutes. I just got off the chat with a rep at T-Mobile and she confirmed that on the $30 T-Mobile plan VOIP and wifi calling still use minutes.
Is there any way around this?
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I have the same plan. Hangouts does not use your plan minutes—just data. That said, T-Mobile does have a special Wi-Fi Calling option, which does use minutes, but it’s not available on the N5, at least not at this time.
BinkXDA said:
I have the same plan. Hangouts does not use your plan minutes—just data. That said, T-Mobile does have a special Wi-Fi Calling option, which does use minutes, but it’s not available on the N5, at least not at this time.
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Are you rooted or something? I have a moto x and running 4.4.4. I just put $10 dollars into my account yesterday and have using google hangout dialer exclusively and now am down to $3. I had a chat with T-Mobile just now and the rep confirmed that it does use minutes. What am I missing here? The rep even credited me $7 for the confusion that I thought it would use data not minutes. She said that on the post pay plans it does not use minutes.
seagood3 said:
Are you rooted or something? I have a moto x and running 4.4.4. I just put $10 dollars into my account yesterday and have using google hangout dialer exclusively and now am down to $3. I had a chat with T-Mobile just now and the rep confirmed that it does use minutes. What am I missing here? The rep even credited me $7 for the confusion that I thought it would use data not minutes. She said that on the post pay plans it does not use minutes.
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Nope. Not sure what’s going on—unless somehow your T-Mobile number is involved. Hangouts simply uses data so I’m uncertain why your minutes are being decremented.
BinkXDA said:
Nope. Not sure what’s going on—unless somehow your T-Mobile number is involved. Hangouts simply uses data so I’m uncertain why your minutes are being decremented.
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I even tried putting it in airplane mode and turning wifi on and it wouldn't connect. Can you do that and it works?
seagood3 said:
I even tried putting it in airplane mode and turning wifi on and it wouldn't connect. Can you do that and it works?
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Weird. I don’t have cell service in my basement, but do have Wi-Fi there, and I have zero issues making calls from Hangouts.
Is there a way to purchase this plan before going to the US? I'm planning a trip and will need this as soon as I arrive.
Thanks in advance!
ps: I already have a gv #, everytime I travel to the us I have to go to a mall, explain that I need a short term plan, get the sim chip, wait for it to work, call t-mobile complaining that I've run out too quickly... lol
seagood3 said:
I have been making calls through the hangout dialer and have confirmed that the call is going out as my Google Voice number. The problem is that it still uses minutes. I just got off the chat with a rep at T-Mobile and she confirmed that on the $30 T-Mobile plan VOIP and wifi calling still use minutes.
Is there any way around this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only way this would be happening is if you're not really using the hangouts dialer, but using the Google voice app which integrates with the regular dialer on the phone. In that case it will use minutes, because you're using the regular dialer (ie minutes) where calls are being routed through to Google voice.... not the same as using the hangouts dialer directly.
seagood3 said:
I have been making calls through the hangout dialer and have confirmed that the call is going out as my Google Voice number. The problem is that it still uses minutes. I just got off the chat with a rep at T-Mobile and she confirmed that on the $30 T-Mobile plan VOIP and wifi calling still use minutes.
Is there any way around this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you use Hangouts to dial phone numbers, it should not use your minutes. I had this $30 T-Mo plan for a while now and been using it with the 5GB just fine.
One way to check is using the Android Phone Dialer app (NOT Hangout dialer) and dial...
1. Check for minutes: dial #646# (#MIN#) then hit the talk button
2. Check for data usage: dial #932# (#WEB#)
You should see your data usage going up and talk minutes should remain low.
I would make sure hangouts and voice are updated and that you have hangouts dialer installed. Make sure that under settings in hangouts is showing your gvoice number and if you open voice that it let's you know that hangouts had taken over. Use the dialer to make a call that will be easy for you to see the caller ID. Your gvoice number should show up.
i dont have GV....
i do have Tmo $30... i love i can call everyone now over LTE since now calling my parents once wont kill my 100 minutes....BUT, people i call see "UNKNOWN" on their caller ID when i called via Hangouts... thats the only thing that sucks for me because most of people wont answer those types of calls, i have to text them before calling saying to expect it.
wish there was a way to set a ANI number on hangouts to show my number
I'm having issues with calls and texts on T-mobile since this morning. Whenever I place a call the phone sometimes takes 10 seconds to ring, rarely it'll go straight to voicemail, and more often the call won't go through at all, the call will just drop.
If I myself end the call I lose any sort of connection, no 2g no 3g no LTE; I checked settings/about/network and Cellular Network Type gets stuck on UMTS. When this happens I can't call nor can I send messages, the redundant fix that I have to do to fix LTE and get messages working again is to go into: settings/mobile data/network operators and register automatically again, this always gives me LTE and messaging back, and sometimes calls, sometimes.
On the other end, when people call me, I noticed that the phone will go into 4g or H which is the same thing I believe. However, calls don't come through, it either goes straight to voicemail or it'll ring once or twice then go straight to voicemail. Also when it rings on their end, I can't hear it on my end, phone is silent.
This has happened on 4 roms Eragon, NusenSeven, Stock GP Edition and Insert Coin,
The phone is rooted and s-off
HBoot: 161
7.19.401.2
If anyone has the same issue or know a fix, please let me know, it's getting a tad bit annoying.
Hoping It could be the sim card, Thank you, much appreciated
Edit: Apparently T-Mobile was having issues in my area. Surprised it was out for 3 days.
I recently changed to H2O, which is an AT&T reseller for those who are unfamiliar, and I'm having a very peculiar problem.
When I go to make a call, as soon as I tap the green button to make the call, sometimes my signal drops to 0 bars and I can't make the call. Sometimes this happens repeatedly and it's impossible to call anyone. But sometimes the call will go through after the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th try. However, sometimes it drops to emergency calls only after the call fails, or sometimes it drops to no service.
Additionally, when I go to change the conditional call forwarding under dialer - settings - calls - call forwarding, as soon as I tap call forwarding, the signal bars vanish and I get a call settings error. This happens almost all of the time. And again, sometimes it will drop to emergency calls only, or a several times I've had it drop to no service.
When I give up trying to make a call or change call forwarding settings, the signal strength will return after a minute or so, which is currently fluxuating around -112 dBm 28 asu, -116 dBm 24 asu, 110 dBm 30 asu. Not sure what any of that means though.
Frequently, incoming calls do not reach my phone. Often I'll get a text message asking me why I'm not answering my phone, but it never rang. There's no indication that my phone was out of service as there is always at least one bar.
I can send text messages with no problem at all. My data also works just fine. In fact, one of my friends gave up calling my phone number and instead calls me on WhatsApp because that's the only way he can get a hold of me. He would call my number, have it fail, and then immediately call me on WhatsApp and that goes through because my data doesn't usually have any issues.
I've tried changing APN settings according to different information I got from H2O. I've tried changing the preferred network type to 3G and 2G. Changing to 2G seems to help my ability to make calls, or maybe it just seemed that way. I've contacted H2O numerous times about it. They opened multiple tickets on it and finally said that there's no problem on their end getting service on that sim card. I sorta verified this because the sim card doesn't display this problem in my 1st gen Moto X, an XT1053.
Two other people in my house are on the AT&T network, one on Cricket with a Galaxy S6 (G920AZ), and one on H2O with a Galaxy S3 (T999) and they never have any issues here at home or elsewhere.
My phone is an XT1095 pure edition. I run stock 6.0, 24.11.18.victara_tmo.tmo.en.US, kernel 3.4.42-g389e46b, rooted, TWRP, with no apps that modify call behavior except Google Voice which is set to never use GV to make calls. This phone worked flawlessly on several different T-Mobile resellers. I'm about to switch back to another T-Mobile reseller but I thought I'd post here about this strange issue first because I don't want to always be limited to the T-Mobile network.
Any advice or input is greatly appreciated.
Anyone else here on an MVNO like Mint and very recently have their pixel lose its network settings?
I'd been mostly on WiFi this week and didn't look at my phone much when out on errands. When I did, it showed 5G or LTE and good signal, but with an exclamation point in the signal status indicator. And apps would report no internet service.
At first, I thought maybe it was just congestion/deprioritization as others have warned about. But I eventually found the network settings only showing one default APN with fast.t-mobile.com. I manually entered an APN for Mint, following the config listed on the mintmobile support site, and it restored normal service.
Edit: I forgot to mention that my phone still shows the October 2022 patch level, so I don't think there has been a system update this week yet.
I've also discovered that the visual voicemail feature of the regular Phone app has stopped working again. I think it started around the same time it lost the APN settings, but now it still won't reactivate even though data service is working again.
It is stuck in the often reported state: "Visual voicemail isn't working" and "Call voicemail to finish setting it up". Calling voicemail will let me hear messages the old way, but there isn't any extra setup step I can identify...