[Anon_Emus]

I am sorry if I am re-posting information that is already out there but when I wanted to know this I could not find it. I recently downloaded GV and began to use it. To keep this short I will skip the whys and whatnots...

If you want to send an sms text from your phone using GV and you dont want to be charged by VZW for texting charges you should do the following:

1. install the GV app on your phone
2. do NOT forward your GV number to your cell phone
3. forward your text messages to an email account available on your phone

Here is how it works, to send an initial GV sms you go through the app and make sure that you pick "send GV sms" if using the phone address book. Replies you receive will come in two ways. One when the GV app refreshes and there is an answer you will see it within the app. Two when your email pushes the reply it will be seen in your email inbox. You can then reply back by either going through the app or reply directly to the email. Replying to email will text the user by using an email/text portal (or at least that's what I'm calling it). The nice thing is that you can use the email typing capabilities instead of the limited functions of the app.

Pros: Free texting which is important to me as I do not have a texting plan on my VZW account

Cons: If using the GV app you have to wait for it to refresh to get replys (you can force this manually too) and if using the email then you have to wait for it to push (I use Hotmail and sometimes they are instantaneous other times i have had to wait 1/2 day for them to come through)

To be clear if you have the GV number forwarded to your phone then replies will show up in your regular messenger area, the problem is that you pay for the incoming replies and then if you respond from there instead of the app or email you pay for the outgoing ones as well.

I hope this is helpful to someone and saves them time. I have confirmed the information above by viewing my VZW account online and sending/receiving various test text messages over a period of several hours and days.

[lieutenantglorp]

Update 9/23/10: I setup a gmail account and linked it to the google voice acccount instead and the push delay is gone!!! I just leave an operamini browser tab always open to my contact list (www.google.com/voice/m/contacts). I can initiate a text message quickly from there. It is received almost immmediately (less than 20 seconds) and replies go to my inbox almost immediately and I can reply from there. All free! Well not free, but using your data plan instead of your voice plan to sent a text. Think of it as a free new feature. Now hopefully google will add the mms picture message feature to google voice and then it will be even better. A coworker set it up with yahoo mail and also has no delay.






Great info Anon_Emus! I just tried this on my storm 2 and it works. I did not have to disable call forwarding to cell phone as there is an option to enable text forwarding to email under voicemail and text settings. I set up the google voice account primary email to be my blackberry email @vzw.blackberry.net. I could not find a google voicemail app as the link just takes me to the m.google.com/voice webpage where I assume I can essentially do the same thing. Agree that the only bad is a slight delay on receiving a text. If someone texts you and you are not expecting it, you might have to wait a few minutes to get it forwarded to your email/ pushed to your phone, but once you realize it, you can go to the m.google.com/voice to reply and to get an instant response thereafter by refreshing. Fine for casual texting, but not for receiving urgent texts.

[lieutenantglorp]

Any workaround for picture text messages?