GV Rings my Tablet

[ruidh]

I think I have my OBI200 set up properly with GV. I can ma!e and Rd dive calls on the OBI. I have GV configuration set to Hangouts but not to my mobile phone.

The thing is that GV rings my Nexus tablet as well as the home phone and I can't see a way to disable the ring there. It does not ring my mobile phone even though I am logged into hangouts on that phone.

[drgeoff]

Not clear to me what you desire.

AIUI you have three possible end points.

1.  A phone plugged in to your OBi
2.  A cellphone with service from a conventional carrier with a POTS format number.
3.  A tablet with Hangouts

For each of those three state which of:
a. nothing
b. make calls
c. ring and receive calls

you want to happen.

Incidentally, if your OBi is behaving with GV exactly as you want, then anything concerning GV and cellphone or GV and Hangouts on tablet is nothing to do with configuring your OBi and strictly speaking is out of scope here.

[SteveInWA]

Hangouts works independently of the settings on Google Voice's Settings page, Phones tab.

Each Hangouts client (on a laptop/desktop computer, or on a mobile smartphone or on a tablet) has its own setting to turn on or turn off ringing for inbound calls.  If you don't want your tablet to ring on inbound calls, then go into the Hangouts app's settings on the tablet and turn off the ring setting.

Also, if you have Google Voice forward to a mobile phone's 10-digit telephone number (using that phone's mobile voice telephone connection), then don't also enable ringing on the Hangouts app on that phone.  Pick one or the other, but not both at the same time, since it will cause duplicate ringing and difficulty in selecting which method to use to accept the calls.

[restamp]

If you have Google Voice forward to a mobile phone's 10-digit telephone number (using that phone's mobile voice telephone connection), then don't also enable ringing on the Hangouts app on that phone.  Pick one or the other, but not both at the same time, since it will cause duplicate ringing and difficulty in selecting which method to use to accept the calls.

I know exactly what you mean, Steve.  I used to have a Tasker profile which would hit "End Call" for me on my Android's cell phone as soon as a call came in if I had wi-fi connectivity.  That way, if I were wi-fi connected, I could take the call via Hangouts, and if I were not, I could take it via the cell phone.  Worked great.  However, this required GV Call Screening to be turned on -- you see, that touch-tone demanded by Call Screening not only serves to determine the call's disposition; it also provides an indication that you are a real person (i.e., someone GV wants to transfer the call to) and not a forwarding phone's answering machine or voicemail (something Google Voice does *not* want to send the call to).  With Call Screening turned off, hitting End Call on my cell phone would have the effect of transferring the call directly to my cell phone's Voice mail, because it would be the first to pick up.

Now, I said it worked great, but that was only until I tried integrating my cell phone with my new car's Bluetooth... Then the catch-22s began:  You see, Call Screening requires that you touch-tone a '1' to accept the call, but my car doesn't allow touch-toning when it is in motion (and rightfully so).  But if I turn off Call Screening, it not only breaks my Tasker kludge, but it becomes a race to see which device goes to its VM first.  Catch 22?  Yes, but not an insurmountable one.  The OBi solves this problem elegantly by offering an option to automagically transmit an out-of-band TT 1 upon answering a call.  Hangouts essentially does the same thing depending on whether you "Accept" the call or "Decline" it.  However, the Android Dialer doesn't have such an option to automatically transmit a TT 1 when a call is answered, at least as far as I can tell.  If it did, it would make living with the Android and Google Voice infinitely easier, but it appears the one side of Google doesn't have any idea what the other side's needs are.

So, am I missing something?  Is there any way around this problem, or am I stuck having to run with Call Screening turned off, and living with the instabilities of doing so, in order to utilize the handsfree system in the car?

Time to surrender my soapbox.

[SteveInWA]

Sorry, there's no better/more elegant solution.  GV call screening makes already-risky mobile phone use in the car even more risky, to the point where I'd strongly discourage trying to answer a GV call with call screening enabled, while driving.