Google Voice Alternative SendHub Offers An Easier Way To Provision Phone Lines
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
The SMS features look great. The biggest problem with Google Voice is that Google essentially seems to not care about the product, and really hasn't since they bought it.
But it works and does what it's supposed to, no? At least that's my experience. Is there actually a problem with the service, or do you just have a feeling that it won't last, or something?
Less reliable than gmail, which is already below the reliability I want for a major communications channel.
I still use google voice for a personal number that I mainly give to spammers, but I'd never use it for business, and I've been finding myself just giving my cellphone (or work SIP number) to people.
I'm also concerned google will kill the product, but as long as I can port, that's a lesser issue. (If I can't port, I'd be incensed, though)
The voicemail transcription (works, for US english accentless people) and SMS forwarding (which doesn't work) are the things which keep me on google voice, vs. just running my own SIP. I'll look at Sendhub, either directly or as a voicemail forwarding number.
What I really want is a SIP url I can point calls to and get voicemail transcriptions back as email or something. I'd probably pay $10-20/mo for that for <50 calls.
You can port your GV number to SendHub. Ping me at ash [at] sendhub.com and I'll give you a free upgrade so you can do the port and also use our vm transcription.
1) Inbound texts occasionally arrive late or not at all.
2) Google Voice Android App sometimes breaks silently so you can't receive
calls or texts until you relaunch the app.
3) Sometimes you can't make outgoing calls through the GV android app.
4) MMS messages sent to you are rejected. Neither you nor the
sending party are notified that anything went awry.
5) No confirmation that your text has been sent.
Sometimes GV lets you know that it failed, sometimes it doesn't show up in your
conversation but has actually gone out.
Additionally there are missing features:
1) A bunch of non-google services don't recognize GV numbers as valid and
will not accept it as a phone number.
2) MMS sending and receiving.
3) International texting.
4) Android App with clear semantics what constitutes a conversation and a
clear history of what you sent and received.
Other than that, it is a great service at the price of 0 dollars and non-trivial frustration.
[1] Yes, I realize that it can be set as the default app for sending texts. Unfortunately this does not make third party texting apps work with it. What should be possible is to use it as the underlying text message provider, just like my carrier would be without Google Voice. Then all of the regular apps that know how to send/receive text messages would work with it seamlessly.
Would love to see an Android App for this (I have a Nexus). Anyone know what their current plans are for the droid ecosystem?
Also, is there an option for international calls? I don't see any pricing info for international calls.
I'm looking for a serious alternative to Google Voice and this almost fits the bill, but expensive. As someone mentioned a SIP option would be great too.
We don't do international calls right now, although it's highly requested.
You can make calls over data on sendhub - via both the website and the iPhone app.
Edit: Line2 also has an Android app
We're using GoogleVoice for our company now, but it's not ideal, especially the limitation that a phone can only be connected to one GoogleVoice number.
Would be great to have an Android app as well.