Google voice to cell phone with Google voicemail

[Marty.ba.calif.usa]

This is complicated for me, and I could use some tips. It's most likely not really an Obi setup at all, but I'm hoping someone might still know where to look.

I have GV set up for outgoing calling, and that works fine.  I also have GV set up on my cell phone that replaces my provider's voice mail.  But when I call from my obi phone to my cell phone, the callerID during the call says "Voicemail", but the history says "My Google Voice" (my label for my GV number).  It's annoying, because I have my phone set to announce the caller, and it simply says "Call from ____" (blank), making it sound like an anonymous caller.

I don't have a phonebook entry for "Voicemail", so somehow I guess Google is doing this.  Not that big a deal, but I'd like to fix it, or at least understand why it does this.

[SteveInWA]

I read your post a half-dozen times, and I still can't figure out what you meant.

"I have GV set up for outgoing calling, and that works fine"

Do you have a full Google Voice account, with its own, Google-issued inbound telephone number, or do you have a Google Voice "Lite" account, which has an "access number" which can only be used to listen to your voicemail messages?  Look on the left side of this page:  https://www.google.com/voice#inbox.  Do you see the exact two words "Your number", or do you see "Access number" or "Get a Voice number"?

If you don't have "Your number", then outbound calls made on an OBi, using that Google Voice account, will show as anonymous or private calls to the called party.  Formerly, a dummy Google number was used, but this was changed earlier this month.

"But when I call from my obi phone to my cell phone, the callerID during the call says "Voicemail""

Whatever the cell phone's caller ID display is showing is based on the cell phone's address book.  Is that what you meant?  Google isn't substituting that name, unless you are looking at a Google Voice call log, and you have a Google Contacts entry named "Voicemail"?  Again, this doesn't make sense -- please explain in more detail.

[Marty.ba.calif.usa]

Thanks a lot for trying to figure it out - sorry it wasn't clear, I didn't even know about the "lite" accounts.

I do have a GV number, had it for years. I use it for my outgoing calls on SP3 of my Obi200.  It works well, except when I call my cell phone.  I have used Google Voice on my cell phone for international dialing, and for my voicemail replacing AT&T's voicemail for the past year or two.  This is probably causing my problem, but I can't figure out why.  When I get a call from my OBi, via GV, the callerID says "Voicemail".  But I definitely don't have any contacts for voicemail, and my LG's speaking callerID doesn't say "Call from Voicemail", which is what it would do if I did.  It says "Call from ..." (blank). 

I do have contact for "My Google Voice", and when I look in the history, it shows the call came from "My Google Voice".  So the number is obviously being sent, and I'm guessing it GV on the cell phone that somehow messes it up.  So, if you and anyone else tells me this is not the appropriate forum for this problem, I will totally understand.

I agree this doesn't make sense.  And I'm finding it hard to really understand the options in setting up GV everywhere.  Perhaps I should turn it off on my cell phone for now, and work on one thing at a time, or simply don't worry about this strange behavior.


If I call my wife's iphone, everything is normal. My Android phone first rejected calls due to no callerID (I assume), but somewhere along the way, in changing GV convigurations, it began working as it does now.

This all started because I decided to move GV to another GMail account, because I'm considering signing up for Project Fi using my main account, and it doesn't support Obi calling.

I hope this makes sense, but I won't be surprised if you simply decide it's too complicated, and give up.

[SteveInWA]

Thanks for the additional information.

This reminds me of the quote attributed to Nobel laureate physicist Enrico Fermi:

"Before I came here I was confused about this subject.  Having listened to your lecture I am still confused.  But on a higher level."

There could be several different things going on at once, all combined to create a mess.  Let's try just a few steps at a time.  The fact that you moved your GV number around makes me suspicious:

On your Android phone, log out of the mobile Google Voice app, and delete it entirely off of the phone (don't just delete the shortcut, but go to Settings -->Apps, and force-close the app, then delete the app's cache, data, and the app itself).  Power-cycle your phone.

Log into your Google Voice account from a laptop or desktop computer, not from your phone.  Go here:

https://www.google.com/voice#phones

Tell me that it does, in fact, say "Your number" on the left side of the web page.  Then, hover your mouse cursor on the avatar at the upper right corner of the page (either a generic blue head and shoulders, or your photo if you uploaded one).  It should display your user name (your Gmail address).  Look carefully to be sure it's the one you want to use, since it is all too easy to be logged into multiple Google accounts in the same browser.  If it is the wrong address, log out and then log back in with the right address.

Log into your OBiTALK portal web page.  Click on the [Expand] link if necessary to display SP1 through SP4.  Click on the SP that is assigned to your GV account.  Click "Accept" in the pop-up box.  Now, look at the Google Voice "Active Google Username".  Confirm that it is an exact match to the user name shown on the GV Settings webpage I linked above.  If it isn't, then click the link to replace the Google account.

If this is all correct so far, then call your Google Voice phone number from some unrelated phone number.  Confirm that your OBi-attached telephone rings, and that it displays the caller ID number of the calling party.  Now, hang up and do the reverse:  from the OBi-attached phone, call the other phone number.  That phone should display your GV telephone number as the caller ID.  Did this work as I described?