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General Support => Day-to-Day Use => Topic started by: PennyCat on February 19, 2018, 09:34:03 AM

Title: Require callers to press a number before ringing my phone
Post by: PennyCat on February 19, 2018, 09:34:03 AM
I recall when I've called some google voice numbers I had to press 1 before it would connect me to the GV owner's phone.

Is this still possible?  I've noticed groups and circles no longer work, so it appears Google has been removing functionality.  I'm getting far too many "Heather from account services" calls, and would like either everyone to have to press a button to ring me, or have a select group of people NOT have to press a button.
Title: Re: Require callers to press a number before ringing my phone
Post by: SteveInWA on February 19, 2018, 12:19:32 PM
Hi:

Yes, the feature you are thinking of is Google Voice's call screening.  It's still available, on the new web page user interface.  Use a laptop/desktop computer's web browser,and go here:  https://voice.google.com/settings (https://voice.google.com/settings)

Scroll down the page and you'll see it as a toggle on/off.

RE:  Groups and Circles, yah, it isn't being fully supported at this time.  The ability to use multiple voicemail greetings depending on the group or individual contact no longer works.  But, you can still define which forwarding destinations ring for a given group.  Those settings are on the old, Legacy user interface.
Title: Re: Require callers to press a number before ringing my phone
Post by: Taoman on February 19, 2018, 06:21:34 PM
Quote from: SteveInWA on February 19, 2018, 12:19:32 PM
Groups and Circles, yah, it isn't being fully supported at this time.  The ability to use multiple voicemail greetings depending on the group or individual contact no longer works.

That's news to me. I just added a new Contact and tested with different group membership and it played the configured group voicemail greeting as expected.

My experience has been, and continues to be, when adding a new Contact things work as expected based on group membership. However, when editing a Contact at a later date by adding or deleting from group membership things don't always work as expected. At that point I either delete the Contact entirely and start fresh or edit the individual Contact and configure it as desired and forget about group membership. This method continues to work for me.....as far as I can tell.

How long has there been an issue with Groups and Circles? Do you know if Google plans on fixing any issues?
Title: Re: Require callers to press a number before ringing my phone
Post by: SteveInWA on February 19, 2018, 06:55:55 PM
Quote from: Taoman on February 19, 2018, 06:21:34 PM
Quote from: SteveInWA on February 19, 2018, 12:19:32 PM
Groups and Circles, yah, it isn't being fully supported at this time.  The ability to use multiple voicemail greetings depending on the group or individual contact no longer works.

That's news to me. I just added a new Contact and tested with different group membership and it played the configured group voicemail greeting as expected.

My experience has been, and continues to be, when adding a new Contact things work as expected based on group membership. However, when editing a Contact at a later date by adding or deleting from group membership things don't always work as expected. At that point I either delete the Contact entirely and start fresh or edit the individual Contact and configure it as desired and forget about group membership. This method continues to work for me.....as far as I can tell.

How long has there been an issue with Groups and Circles? Do you know if Google plans on fixing any issues?

There is no method at all yet to manage groups in the new UI, nor to record a voicemail greeting.  I expect that the voicemail settings will be added to the new UI soon - there have been delays in finishing it.  I do not expect that the Groups and Circles feature will be migrated to the new UI

As for your current experience, I haven't tested it lately, but many users on the GV forum reported that it would not play custom (per group) greetings when someone in a given group called.  AFAIK, that could have been a temporary bug, or a sign that the end is near.  This feature has never been widely used, and the more "limited interest" things they can retire, the more reliable and easy-to-maintain the service becomes.

As usual, Google is secretive about these things, and they won't comment to the public on plans.  However, I predict that the Legacy UI will be shut down sometime this year, after the critical settings are added to the new UI.  You can already see an example of this:  the new account signup workflow (e.g. starting from scratch to get one of Google Voice's free numbers or port in a number) will no longer let you start from the Legacy UI -- you must do it from the new UI.

If/when I have anything I can share in public, I'll be happy to do so.