Google voice verifying all incoming calls

[Soulcommander]

Not sure what is going on today but all incoming calls to my home via Obi202 device with google voice is verifying all calls. That is when someone calls an automated service will ask the caller to speak his name then when the phone rings on my end an automated message says the persons name that is calling and to accept press 1 to send a voice message press 2.

Very annoying, does anyone know whats going on???

Some times the caller tells me that the call never completes, that is I never hear my phone ring.
We had an issue with google voice like this last week and it was some sort of a software glitch and was corrected. Well it seems google voice is up to something again. 


??

[Taoman]

Go hear and disable Call Screening.

https://www.google.com/voice/b/0/redirection/voice/#callsettings

[Soulcommander]

Signed into google.com/voice and noticed the software there has changed and the call screening was turned on. So I turned it off problem solved.  One other thing I noticed is you use to be able to set the number of rings before the call was forwarded to another linked phone. It seems that this option is gone as far as the number of rings before it will transfer the call to another phone.

Also the press 4 or * feature does not work.  pressing 4 to record the call or pressing * to transfer your current call to another linked phone.

[Soulcommander]

Taoman::::  WOW that is the older settings page I was trying to find and use. If you noticed on that page you sent me it says The new Google Voice is here. TRY NOW    If you click that you will then see the settings page google voice took me to.  

[Taoman]

Taoman::::  WOW that is the older settings page I was trying to find and use. If you noticed on that page you sent me it says The new Google Voice is here. TRY NOW    If you click that you will then see the settings page google voice took me to.  

There was a reason I posted that link.

I've used Google Voice since it was in beta and I've never seen where you could "set the number of rings before the call was forwarded to another linked phone." Perhaps I am misunderstanding you?

[Soulcommander]

Maybe in my old age I am forgetting.    I really did think that option was there. Because sometimes we could not get to the phone fast enough. BUT I might be thinking about our answering machine at home too. You can adjust the rings before it goes to the machine.  I thought the same was true with google voice that you could set it to how many rings before it would use the google voice greeting to answer the incoming call  ??   Do you know anything about the * or 4 feature and if it should work?

[Taoman]

Do you know anything about the * or 4 feature and if it should work?

I never use those features but I think I remember reading somewhere that they don't work (at least currently) with the updated Google Voice.

Don't forget you can always record a call directly from the Call Status screen on your OBi during a call........although admittedly a lot less convenient than just pressing 4.

[SteveInWA]

Maybe in my old age I am forgetting.    I really did think that option was there. Because sometimes we could not get to the phone fast enough. BUT I might be thinking about our answering machine at home too. You can adjust the rings before it goes to the machine.  I thought the same was true with google voice that you could set it to how many rings before it would use the google voice greeting to answer the incoming call  ??   Do you know anything about the * or 4 feature and if it should work?

The "calling features" (using the * key or the 4 key) are going away.  There has never, ever been a setting to change the number of rings.  Perhaps you are thinking of a SIP ITSP like Callcentric's settings.

The call screening feature is currently in a confusing state.  From what I've been told, it will currently ask callers who are not in your Google Contacts to state their name, and not ask the callers who are in your contacts.  I do not know if they will leave it that way, or change it again.

And, aside from that, you're dropping in here late in the "news cycle".  All current OBiTALK products that are properly communicating with the OBiTALK provisioning system will automatically be upgraded to the new Google Voice VoIP platform.  The rollout is now underway.

See:  http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=13824.0

[Soulcommander]

 actually found out the software has change for Google voice and the call screening was turned on. It was still asking callers to identify themselves even if they were in my list. Problem solved I turned call screening off. Somehow with the update it got turned on and with the old way that used to work if you identified yourself the first time you never had to identify yourself after that. That doesn't seem to be working this time around so had to turn call screening off

[SteveInWA]

The old call screening option had an option nested in it, that would optionally ask callers for their name the first time they called you, and then never again.  So, you had three choices:  don't use call screening at all, use it, or use it AND ask for the callers' names.

The new call screening option works much differently.  There is no user-accessible setting to turn the "ask for name" thing on or off.  If call screening is turned on, it will ask all callers whose number(s) are not in your Google Contacts to state their name, every time they call, until you add them to Google Contacts.  At that point, it won't screen those callers at all anymore.