Android Messages not using my Google Voice number

[PhilD41]

I will chime in here as well, though I don't know that it will make a difference. I am perfectly happy using hangouts for IM and GV, but it is VERY frustrating that it can't integrate with SMS now. Basically I lose a lot of voice commands and automation because it doesn't. Same is true for GV voice calls. I would love to be able to set GV as the default dialer (phone) and default SMS app. That would solve a lot of problems as well.

I know GV can integrate with the phone dialer, but my carrier / coverage has issues using that options. I can keep VOIP calls started from the GV app (on data) connected MUCH better than GV to phone calls. Despite having the GV setting to prefer data, it seems to still use the carriers voice connection (GSM) over the LTE data. As a phone dialer, GV is still very broken and has zero integration into the rest of the phone.

 

[MT_oscar]

I got rid of the notification ages ago and downloaded Messages. Hangouts is still my default Google Voice app. No problems here.

The biggest frustration for me, being a dedicated google voice user, is the inability to ask google assistant to send a text message. There are settings in place for which Assistant will make calls using GV #, why not for my txt?

 

[Adam York]

Exactly. Very frustrating. I find that when I am driving and I say "hey Google, call So-and-so" , it does so no problem from my Google Voice number. However, if I tell it to send a text to the same person, it does so from my Carrier phone number and not from my Google Voice number. As everyone else has discovered, there seems to be no way to fix this. There is no option in android to select Google Voice as the default texting app.

 

[brucehvn]

The biggest frustration for me, being a dedicated google voice user, is the inability to ask google assistant to send a text message. There are settings in place for which Assistant will make calls using GV #, why not for my txt?

I still have hangouts installed and I've been able to tell Google Assistant to "send a hangouts message to ...". It then asks me for the text of the message, confirms it, then sends it. Now most of the time I'm sending a chat message, but I'm not sure what would happen if I did that for a person I only have a phone number for. My hope would be that it would send an SMS via hangouts, which would be with my GV number.

 

[Charlotte Smith6]

Back again... I'm now using a Pixel XL running Pie and had hoped that the ability to send out messages from my GV number through Android Messages would somehow be working (due to pure Androidness) but alas it's not.

I changed carriers in December and rather than port over my old number, I just rolled with a new number. Since everyone has my GV number things went great since that's the only number they knew. No need to update anyone about the change. The grand-unifier I discovered didn't happen as when driving and asking G to send a text to someone, sure enough it was sent from the new carrier number. Sigh.

Thanks Bruce for mentioning that you can tell G to "send a Hangouts message to..." I'll start doing that in Auto whilst driving.

As Hangouts nears it's end I had hoped a solution was at hand but in searching the corners of the Android web I'm not finding a solution.

I know I'm not the only one who would like one messaging app to do it all, and since Voice, Messages, and Hangouts all exist within the G-sphere it sure would be grand if one of them would be crowned the winner so we could all move on with our messaging lives.

 

[Corey Scott]

I think the issue then is that setting in Android Messages > Advanced > Phone Number is misleading.

I think you and the OP are assuming that is should let you specify the phone number to send messages from when it appears that it's really just there so that you can see what your number is. I don't think that field should be editable.

Right. That feature is misleading. All these people are being unreasonable, and their mistake is in expecting that field to do something, when in reality it does nothing. Why on Earth are these whiners unable to wrap their heads around that one?

You're saying these users should use the Google Voice app or Hangouts for SMS, and stop trying to make Messages do something it was never designed to do. Well, OK, but if it wasn't designed to do that, why is it what Google recommended users switch to when they jerked SMS support from Hangouts?

You also say that Messages ties into the local phone SMS database and has no cloud component, and that Hangouts and Google Voice don't deal with local messages. Well, when I use Messages for web, in a Google Chrome browser that is logged into my Google account, I can see all my carrier SMS conversations that took place before I was using Messages. Boom, my local SMS messages are officially in the cloud. Just not the ones sent to/from my Google Voice number. Google syncs local data between my Android apps and my Google account in the cloud all the time. Look at Drive, Photos, Play Music, etc., etc. etc. Why is it unreasonable to think that if Google is recommending a replacement app for the SMS functionality within Hangouts, that it might function the same way and put SMS messages sent to/from Google Voice into the local SMS database on my phone, where Messages can display them, and use the number I enter in the Messages app to send messages?

As others here have noted, when any app on your phone INCLUDING GOOGLE ASSISTANT tries to send an SMS from your your device, the list of applications you can choose from to perform that function are limited to whatever SMS apps you have installed (in my case, LG's stupid app and Google Messages). Even on pure, carrier-agnostic, vanilla Android, running nothing but apps that are part of what's often hilariously called Google's "ecosystem," your Google apps are too stupid to leverage each other's capabilities and leave you with a crippled device. Google Assistant can't send an SMS from a Google branded phone using Google Voice. It used to work from Google Hangouts, but they inexplicably nixed the ability to set Hangouts as your default SMS app, even though it still sends and receives SMS messages for Voice users. Google told people to install Google Messages instead, and that's not a solution for anyone using Google Voice. What was possible before isn't now. How is that not the same thing as Google breaking something? How is it the fault of these users for wanting a solution that works?

Some of us like to have a dedicated messaging app, that doesn't require one to open an ugly app like Google Voice and switch to a messaging tab. Some of us like to see individual notification badges on app icons, showing the count of new SMS messages separate from the count of new missed calls or voicemails. Most people can do this, but as usual, Google Voice users are left twisting in the wind. But even if you consider those issues purely cosmetic, the fact that apps running on the phones of Google Voice users have absolutely no way of sending an SMS from a Google Voice number is most assuredly not just a cosmetic issue or a case of users being too stubborn to use the intended app. There is no intended app that works in this capacity.

The reason that Google is so infuriating is that they spin forward-thinking ideas into wonderfully useful tools, but they either stop developing them before the full vision is realized (Google Voice), or change direction and pull features many people depend on, before they've gotten a complete alternative in place (Hangouts), so the people who get punished are the ones who buy in with the most loyalty. The people who experience the problems are absolutely right to be vocal about it, because they're Google's most devoted users. In this case, the solution is to not be a Google Voice user. How is that acceptable? Google Voice says it supports SMS, but that's only partially true. You can send/receive SMS messages from a crappy tab in a crappy app, but as far as your phone is concerned at the system level, Google Voice can't be used for SMS. It would be one thing if people were warned of this before they incur expenses porting their number to Google Voice. Before MMS was supported, they warned people that MMS only worked via email. I waited until they had everything sorted out via Hangouts to port my number, and then they broke it. Now a couple years have gone by, and there's still no apparent solution.

 

[Ry]

Right. That feature is misleading. All these people are being unreasonable, and their mistake is in expecting that field to do something, when in reality it does nothing. Why on Earth are these whiners unable to wrap their heads around that one?

Whoa. I mean - just clarifying facts over assumptions.

You're saying these users should use the Google Voice app or Hangouts for SMS, and stop trying to make Messages do something it was never designed to do. Well, OK, but if it wasn't designed to do that, why is it what Google recommended users switch to when they jerked SMS support from Hangouts?

Sure, if you want to take it that way.

You also say that Messages ties into the local phone SMS database and has no cloud component, and that Hangouts and Google Voice don't deal with local messages. Well, when I use Messages for web, in a Google Chrome browser that is logged into my Google account, I can see all my carrier SMS conversations that took place before I was using Messages. Boom, my local SMS messages are officially in the cloud. Just not the ones sent to/from my Google Voice number. Google syncs local data between my Android apps and my Google account in the cloud all the time. Look at Drive, Photos, Play Music, etc., etc. etc. Why is it unreasonable to think that if Google is recommending a replacement app for the SMS functionality within Hangouts, that it might function the same way and put SMS messages sent to/from Google Voice into the local SMS database on my phone, where Messages can display them, and use the number I enter in the Messages app to send messages?

Turn your phone off and see if you still get your SMS in the cloud from Google Messenger. SMS is a carrier service, not a Google service. People like you want Google to hijack the number just like Apple hijack's the phone number for messaging.

With a Google Voice number - Google is the carrier for that number so...? ? ?

As others here have noted, when any app on your phone INCLUDING GOOGLE ASSISTANT tries to send an SMS from your your device, the list of applications you can choose from to perform that function are limited to whatever SMS apps you have installed (in my case, LG's stupid app and Google Messages). Even on pure, carrier-agnostic, vanilla Android, running nothing but apps that are part of what's often hilariously called Google's "ecosystem," your Google apps are too stupid to leverage each other's capabilities and leave you with a crippled device. Google Assistant can't send an SMS from a Google branded phone using Google Voice. It used to work from Google Hangouts, but they inexplicably nixed the ability to set Hangouts as your default SMS app, even though it still sends and receives SMS messages for Voice users. Google told people to install Google Messages instead, and that's not a solution for anyone using Google Voice. What was possible before isn't now. How is that not the same thing as Google breaking something? How is it the fault of these users for wanting a solution that works?

The solution is still to use the Google Voice app to send and receive messages for Google Voice.

The reason that Google is so infuriating is that they spin forward-thinking ideas into wonderfully useful tools, but they either stop developing them before the full vision is realized (Google Voice), or change direction and pull features many people depend on, before they've gotten a complete alternative in place (Hangouts), so the people who get punished are the ones who buy in with the most loyalty.

No arguments from me there. Google users are Beta testers.

The people who experience the problems are absolutely right to be vocal about it, because they're Google's most devoted users.

I'm not infringing on anyone's rights so...?

In this case, the solution is to not be a Google Voice user. How is that acceptable? Google Voice says it supports SMS, but that's only partially true. You can send/receive SMS messages from a crappy tab in a crappy app, but as far as your phone is concerned at the system level, Google Voice can't be used for SMS. It would be one thing if people were warned of this before they incur expenses porting their number to Google Voice. Before MMS was supported, they warned people that MMS only worked via email. I waited until they had everything sorted out via Hangouts to port my number, and then they broke it. Now a couple years have gone by, and there's still no apparent solution.

Speaking with your actions by no longer using Google Voice because it doesn't have the features that you want is up to you - and IMO the best route to take.