Can an Obi 202 be programmed to do selective call forwarding?
SteveInWA:
Yes, one of the main functions of Google Voice, is to be the voicemail system for your cell phone. To make this work, there needs to be a way for unanswered or busy calls to be automatically forwarded back to your Google Voice phone number.
This is accomplished in one of two ways:
If your cell phone service provider (carrier) supports Conditional Call Forwarding (also known as no-answer/busy transfer), then all you need to do is to enable the feature on your cell phone. This is done either by entering star (*) codes on your phone's keypad, or by using your carrier's customer web portal. Each carrier does it differently; if you tell me your carrier, I can probably help you.
If your carrier doesn't support CCF, then the workaround is to enable Google Voice's call screening feature. When call screening is active, whoever or whatever answers a call to your inbound GV number will need to press "1" to accept the call, or to press "2" to send it immediately to voicemail. If nothing is pressed, GV gives up after about 25 seconds, and takes the message. Since your cell phone carrier's own VM system isn't human, it can't press 1, so the call will go to GV VM. Note: this will only help prevent the cell phone's VM from grabbing the message if the call is made to your GV inbound number and then forwarded to the cell phone. It won't help when calls are made directly to your cell phone, since Google Voice isn't screening those calls first.
Most third-party MVNO service providers (e.g. most of America Movil's brands like TracFone, Net10, Straight Talk, etc.), and most of the discount subsidiaries of the big four carriers don't support CCF. All of the big four do support it.
lostinqueens:
Understood. I currently use GV for my (Verizon) cell phone voicemail. My concern is that if my GV number rings on my Obi and forwards to my cell number and then my cell number forwards the number back to GV using a star code, then I'll end up in an endless loop. In your earlier e-mail it sounded like I should set up my GV number to ring my cell number and my PP number.
This is why my PP number currently forwards to my cell number when I'm not in my office. My cell number then forwards to my GV number for voice mail. (If I'm in the office, my PP voice mail deals with the message but I'd prefer GV for this as well.) The issue is that if I don't have my GV number on DND then I end up in an endless loop. This is why I was originally looking for selective call forwarding. If my PP number sends to my cell number and then the cell number sends to GV if I don't answer, I want GV to pick up the phone. The only way I can see to do this is to have GV set to DND, but then my GV number won't ring on my Obi.
SteveInWA:
I tried to explain how GV works in my first reply. Let me try again, specifically with regard to OBi and VZW use.
OBi devices are simply one of the forwarding destinations for your GV inbound phone number. GV treats it the same as any other forwarding destinations (cell phone, land line number, or Hangouts clients). It will simultaneously ring all the destinations. So, both your OBi attached telephone and your cell phone will ring at the same time, and you can answer either one. If you set up CCF on your VZW number, and you don't answer the forwarded call on your VZW phone, then GV VM will take the message. The OBi, being just another forwarding destination, won't have any impact on this. The OBi isn't doing the forwarding; Google Voice is. Don't set any rules on the OBi to forward these calls. Let GV do that. Think of the OBi (Chat client) and your VZW number as equal peers -- not one chained to the other.
I can't speak to how, exactly, things will work if you forward your PP number to your cell phone number
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