What features at GV will still work ?

[mshumack]

Sorry for the noobi question but I need to know what to do next. I have selected a new VoIP, setup an account, and am porting my GV phone number to them.

So my questions are:
Will my GV voicemail and recorded greeting still work? 

With GV, when I miss a call, the caller can leave a message which is then sent to my e-mail account (transcribed to text for reading and available to play back); will this work?

I assume none of this will work since phone calls will no longer be going through Google.

Should I just delete my GV account? Do I need it for anything?

[voip_newbie]

I was wondering the very same thing?

I currently use Google voice for SP1 and have PhonePower as SP2 and configured for outbound calling. I was considering switching this around (setting GV as SP2). But this may not work at all after GV pulls the plug next month.

I suppose if I deleted it completely, I would still get the notification emails for calls made to my GV phone number.

[AlanB]

Once you PORT your number from GV you've taken GV and all of its features out of the picture. You might as well delete the account.   Even if you don't port having the SP configured to GV after May 14 won't be useful.

[mshumack]

Thanks. That's what I needed to know. I'll delete GV account after everything is setup with my new VoIP service.

I didn't look when I selected my new provider - but do most VoIP providers have/provide a voice mail feature like GV? For me it doesn't matter much since my Obi110 feeds into my wireless phone base station which has an answering machine. However, GV also shows "missed calls" with their respective numbers, which then shows up in my e-mail in-box which is nice.

[Marty.ba.calif.usa]

Probably any provider provides basic voicemail, with possibly limited storage.  Some provide email notifications of voicemails, with attached recording, and possibly voice to text transcription.  Depends on provider.

[mcluvin737]

Is there any chance that OBI will figure out a way to make it work with Hangouts? 

[AlanB]

Is there any chance that OBI will figure out a way to make it work with Hangouts? 

That's only been asked about 100 times on this forum. No. Seek details elsewhere.

[Usetheforceobiwan]

Were trying to figure out what happens to the GV portal over here:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r29192152-What-Happens-to-the-Google-Voice-Portal-After-May-14th

[SteveInWA]

Were trying to figure out what happens to the GV portal over here:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r29192152-What-Happens-to-the-Google-Voice-Portal-After-May-14th

There is an incredible amount of useless misinformation and speculation on that thread.  It's like the blind men trying to describe a camel.

As one of the handful of "Top Contributor" volunteers over on the Google Voice forum, I work with the Google Voice engineering and program staff.  Here is what I can disclose and discuss publicly.

I have posted some version of this information elsewhere on this forum, but it's so hard to search, and there are so many redundant threads that I'll just try again.  I am doing this to try to cut through so much rumor and flat-out incorrect information on the web, and help people understand what's changing and what's not changing:

Google Voice was, and is now, in improved form, the inbound telephone call and voicemail message management system that Google purchased from GrandCentral.  It is not, and never has been, a VoIP telephone company (despite somewhat misleading advertising by sellers of devices or apps that use unauthorized methods of access to the service).  The GV platform is designed to forward calls via the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).  Contrary to many peoples' misunderstanding, the official mobile Google Voice apps, from Google, for iOS and Android have never, and to this day, still do not support VoIP calling; they use the mobile phone's voice carrier's network (GSM, CDMA, and soon VoLTE).

Google Voice relied on a companion product, Google Chat and its underlying VoIP protocol, XMPP, to make and receive calls over the internet.  GV phone numbers could be used as caller ID for outbound Chat calls, and Chat could be used as one of a GV user's forwarding destinations.  A related, but irrelevant product, Google Talk also used XMPP.  Think of Google Talk as the competitor to AOL's AIM and MSN's and Yahoo's similar IM client applications of that heyday.

OBi devices do not interact directly with Google Voice; they interact with Google Chat via XMPP.

Now, here is the key message:  Google Chat/Talk and their XMPP protocol, are being shut down permanently on May 15th.  This isn't a rumor; it's on track to happen.  It has been widely communicated by Google to third parties who Google knew were using XMPP clients.  Obihai was one of them.  Important to understand:  Google never, ever, authorized, supported, or recommended any third-party use of XMPP clients.  It just had other things to deal with, and let it slide.

Why is Google doing this?  You can ignore all the gossip, emotional rants and speculation on the web; it's just pointless, and in some cases wildly off-the-mark.  Google is moving all internet audio/video communications to a newer platform, WebRTC.  Why?  Look at the bigger picture of how the use of computers has evolved.  We've gone from an environment where the vast majority of people used desktop Microsoft Windows PCs, to a highly mobile, highly heterogeneous environment of Windows, Linux, Apple Mac OS X, Apple iOS, Google Chrome OS, Google Android, Windows Phone, etc.  It used to be painful, but doable, to maintain application development for Windows and Mac PCs.  There are simply not enough skilled programmers and security professionals and support people to maintain platform-specific apps anymore.  The security risks and zero-day hacking sophistication have grown enormously, and the cycle-time for new OS versions has dramatically reduced.

This is why the large majority of app development is moving to the web or "cloud".  Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are all basing their futures on platform-agnostic, web-browser-based services.  Google and Mozilla worked together with an open software development community to create WebRTC.  This is a set of APIs that are "baked-into" their web browsers.  So now, it is extremely easy to build, test and maintain communications apps, simply by using the browser as the user interface.  This is the same concept as building accelerated graphics (GPU), encryption, application (HTML5) and other advanced functions into the browser:  you don't need to write a pile of low-level code to perform communications; it is already written; just use it via standard API calls.

So, for those reasons, Google's replacement for Chat/Talk/XMPP is WebRTC and Hangouts.

Google Hangouts already supports making and receiving VoIP telephone calls on the web browser (laptop/desktop Windows, Mac OS, Linux and Chrome OS), and on Apple iOS devices.

Google Hangouts for Android will also be getting telephone calling capability soon.

Google already stated that their plan is to migrate and integrate Google Voice user interface functions into Hangouts apps (mobile and web), but the Google Voice service is not being eliminated at all, and, aside from no more XMPP, it will continue to operate on May 16th just as it did on May 14th.

[nitzan]

Since I'm assuming you're talking about Future Nine - yes, we do provide voicemail and voicemail-to-email. Please click the Voicemail link inside the web console for more info and configuration options.

[Usetheforceobiwan]

SteveInWA - So can you confirm, will the "forward to Google chat" check box disappear on May 15th? 

[gderf]

Making the "forward to Google chat" check box disappear will break forwarding of calls to the stand alone Google Talk application. Why would Google want to do that?

[Usetheforceobiwan]

Now, here is the key message:  Google Chat/Talk and their XMPP protocol, are being shut down permanently on May 15th.  This isn't a rumor; it's on track to happen.  

I guess because it's the only conclusion you could come to.

[gderf]

I'm betting Google restricts access to XMPP in such a way that their own apps continue to work, but external apps and third party access don't.

[Usetheforceobiwan]

If G restricts XMPP access to allow only their own applications, where does that leave third party chat apps (that don't connect to GV) like pidgin?  I tried searching to see if pidgin was impacted on May 14th as well, I couldn't find anything. 

[gderf]

Maybe they allow non GV connected apps to continue?

[SteveInWA]

Making the "forward to Google chat" check box disappear will break forwarding of calls to the stand alone Google Talk application. Why would Google want to do that?

Because, as I said, Chat and Talk are obsolete, and will no longer be supported.  They're going away, too.  Hangouts is the replacement for both of them.

That whole discussion over on DSL reports was a bunch of utterly useless, uninformed speculation.  Admittedly, it wouldn't have to be that way if Google would just do a better job of communicating with the public, but sorry, I don't run things there :-P

[SteveInWA]

I'm betting Google restricts access to XMPP in such a way that their own apps continue to work, but external apps and third party access don't.

There is no point to that.  Chat and Talk are being shut down and replaced by Hangouts.  This is not simply a vendetta against third-party apps.  It's about shutting down Chat/Talk/XMPP and moving forward to WebRTC and Hangouts.

[SteveInWA]

SteveInWA - So can you confirm, will the "forward to Google chat" check box disappear on May 15th? 

I'm waiting to find out the nitty-gritty details of how that will be implemented, so I can't tell you if it will magically disappear by itself, (preferable), or if it will just stop working and die, needing to be cleaned out manually.  If there is something I am able to disclose publicly, I'll try to do so.

[Usetheforceobiwan]

SteveInWa - I think you should add "Helping Blind Men Describe Camels" to your signature.  You have dispelled more myth, speculation and outright gossip in a very few posts and I think that moniker would be an honor that would be a good conversation starter.  Thank you for clarifying alot of information.