New VOIP option for GV - single app solution: GrooVe IP

[DXM31]

Make a call from Gmail on your PC. Log in to www.gmail.com using a computer web browser. On the left side find "Call phone" and make a call using that. Should fix the issue. Also make sure to dial with an area code when using GrooVe IP.

See line two of my post I called using gmail.com and it works tried again with GrooveIP no workie
I always use 10 digits to dial because there are like a half a dozen area codes near me.
Too the numbers I try to call a local to where I live but not really local to my GV number , same area code, but the exchange is like 40 miles away. i.e. where I live is 972-town where I live-####, my GV number 972-another town 40 miles away-####

 

[snrb_labs]

See line two of my post I called using gmail.com and it works tried again with GrooveIP no workie
I always use 10 digits to dial because there are like a half a dozen area codes near me.
Too the numbers I try to call a local to where I live but not really local to my GV number , same area code, but the exchange is like 40 miles away. i.e. where I live is 972-town where I live-####, my GV number 972-another town 40 miles away-####

Hm, not sure what to suggest at that point. The app itself doesn't differentiate between any numbers. Just sends the call over to Google Voice.

 

[ehoser]

Should be back on the market. We've resolve the issue with Google.

I just looked at the Market and it was there.

Noobie question (maybe it was answered in the previous 64 pages) - is this a Skype replacement? I am thinking about canceling my long distance provider and using Skype. Can GrooVeIP be used instead. I still need local POTS, can't get standalone DSL through my ISP.

 

[koopakid08]

Should be back on the market. We've resolve the issue with Google.

Just looked again and yes, it is back up. Happy you guys worked it out!


Sent from space

 

[mknollman123]

welp - i set this up with my google voice accouand and I am quickly approaching pulling the trigger on this idea - Google Voice + GrooveIP + Virgin Mobile Mifi from Walmart (a gig for $20) + Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0 = awesome android phone with total monthly bill of $20.

Also plan on getting a $10 burner phone to leave in the car with a $20 prepaid card on gophone as a backup device.

Thoughts? My wife and I are in wifi areas almost all the time and if we each get a gig I am farily sure we woud all set. I would not only save $20 a month per phone bu also be able to get some better devices.

 

[mknollman123]

Well - got no thoughts from you guys, but I thought I would give it a shot. Bought a Mifi from Walmart on VM - to get the bonus deal for 1gig for $20. Set up google voice and Groove IP on my trusty spare Optimus V - and took it for a trial run for a day.

My initial concern was battery life - but that was impressive. Made it thru a day or normal use on the road and working with no issue.

Here was the sticking point - LAG - wow was it bad. I would say at least 2 seconds even when I was in an area with really good Virgin signal. This made the whole experiment moot. I rarely use my phone as a phone, but I do rely on it for occasional phone uses - so it needs to work.

If you do not need to make callls - this would be a GREAT and cheap solution. But if you want your phone to be a PHONE then this is not really feasible just yet (and might never be with this combination of technologies).

I tested this for a few days and for one day as my only comms device. In every call I made I did not tell the person it was VOIP - and in each one at least twice the person thought I might have hung up or we talked over eachother due to this significant lag. I know that you are saying that this is carrier dependent and signal strength dependent, but my signal was strong during all these calls.

At different points in this thread I have seen what looks like a rep from the developer - if you are still out there - I am a paying customer - is there a way for me to cut down this lag? Would a more powerful device (1gig processor +) make a SIGNIFICANT difference in the lag?

I know these things have been dicussed ad nauseam, but this thread is 63 pages long and over a year running - so I was wondering if anything has changed and also wouldnt mind the cliff's notes version right from "the horse's mouth".

Thanks - this product is a great idea, but it is just not ready for real daily use without some improvement. I would personally prefer crappy tinny sound quality and no lag - as opposed to nice fidelity and disjointed conversations with people talking all over eachother.

 

[snrb_labs]

The most common cause of delay or lag is latency on the network. Which no setting in the app would really correct. The app settings should already be optimized for the Optimus V. About the only thing I could suggest trying is the following

1) Try enabling Keep Screen Alive (incase the issue is the CPU or data going into a power saving state)
2) Try Synchronize Voice
3) Try changing the mic buffer size (try both x-large and small to see which one works better)

Well - got no thoughts from you guys, but I thought I would give it a shot. Bought a Mifi from Walmart on VM - to get the bonus deal for 1gig for $20. Set up google voice and Groove IP on my trusty spare Optimus V - and took it for a trial run for a day.

My initial concern was battery life - but that was impressive. Made it thru a day or normal use on the road and working with no issue.

Here was the sticking point - LAG - wow was it bad. I would say at least 2 seconds even when I was in an area with really good Virgin signal. This made the whole experiment moot. I rarely use my phone as a phone, but I do rely on it for occasional phone uses - so it needs to work.

If you do not need to make callls - this would be a GREAT and cheap solution. But if you want your phone to be a PHONE then this is not really feasible just yet (and might never be with this combination of technologies).

I tested this for a few days and for one day as my only comms device. In every call I made I did not tell the person it was VOIP - and in each one at least twice the person thought I might have hung up or we talked over eachother due to this significant lag. I know that you are saying that this is carrier dependent and signal strength dependent, but my signal was strong during all these calls.

At different points in this thread I have seen what looks like a rep from the developer - if you are still out there - I am a paying customer - is there a way for me to cut down this lag? Would a more powerful device (1gig processor +) make a SIGNIFICANT difference in the lag?

I know these things have been dicussed ad nauseam, but this thread is 63 pages long and over a year running - so I was wondering if anything has changed and also wouldnt mind the cliff's notes version right from "the horse's mouth".

Thanks - this product is a great idea, but it is just not ready for real daily use without some improvement. I would personally prefer crappy tinny sound quality and no lag - as opposed to nice fidelity and disjointed conversations with people talking all over eachother.

 

[ehoser]

Well - got no thoughts from you guys, but I thought I would give it a shot. Bought a Mifi from Walmart on VM - to get the bonus deal for 1gig for $20. Set up google voice and Groove IP on my trusty spare Optimus V - and took it for a trial run for a day.

My initial concern was battery life - but that was impressive. Made it thru a day or normal use on the road and working with no issue.

As far as battery life, you might want to put the phone into airplane mode then turn on wifi. I noticed my battery usage was something over 60% for "Cell Standby" which is wasting a lot for something I don't plan to use. Note - Airplane Mode seems to be persistent between boots but you have to enable wifi each time. You can always turn Airplane Mode off to make a cell call.

 

[mknollman123]

The most common cause of delay or lag is latency on the network. Which no setting in the app would really correct. The app settings should already be optimized for the Optimus V. About the only thing I could suggest trying is the following

1) Try enabling Keep Screen Alive (incase the issue is the CPU or data going into a power saving state)
2) Try Synchronize Voice
3) Try changing the mic buffer size (try both x-large and small to see which one works better)

Thanks for the quick reply. I was considering replacing my everyday phone with your app, google voice, a Galaxy Player 4.0, and a VM mifi.

I have already purchased your app and have some uses for it either way, but here is my question down to brass tacks -

Do you think that the additional processing power of the galaxy player will make a significant difference here when it comes to lag? The savings on my monthly plan, the bigger screen, and the front-facing cam make me more than willing to drop the cheese on the device, but only if it will also work when needed as my phone.

 

[snrb_labs]

Thanks for the quick reply. I was considering replacing my everyday phone with your app, google voice, a Galaxy Player 4.0, and a VM mifi.

I have already purchased your app and have some uses for it either way, but here is my question down to brass tacks -

Do you think that the additional processing power of the galaxy player will make a significant difference here when it comes to lag? The savings on my monthly plan, the bigger screen, and the front-facing cam make me more than willing to drop the cheese on the device, but only if it will also work when needed as my phone.

Depends what's causing the lag. If it's the network then the delay will be the same no matter what device you have. If you have a lot of apps running in the background on the Optimus that could cause lag, but should be able to improve that by stopping apps.

 

[mknollman123]

Well, my grand dreams of a galaxy device and a $20 monthly bill have been dashed by lag.
I have found that in my house on wifi GrooveIP is at least servcieable but as soon as it is on a 3g connection (via mifi or directly from a phone) it is all but useless.

I do still plan on using it via wifi and google voice for myself and my wife to stay within our minutes (especially her lol) and even for just that it is well worth the $1.50 - but if I cannot use it outside of the house then a cell phone replacement it is not.

In the process of playing with this I remembered how much I really liked my OV - just switched back to it and the harmonia 2 rom - think I will be placing my Slider on sale if anyone is interested. It is also a great device.

 

[ehoser]

Well, my grand dreams of a galaxy device and a $20 monthly bill have been dashed by lag.
I have found that in my house on wifi GrooveIP is at least servcieable but as soon as it is on a 3g connection (via mifi or directly from a phone) it is all but useless.

I do still plan on using it via wifi and google voice for myself and my wife to stay within our minutes (especially her lol) and even for just that it is well worth the $1.50 - but if I cannot use it outside of the house then a cell phone replacement it is not.

In the process of playing with this I remembered how much I really liked my OV - just switched back to it and the harmonia 2 rom - think I will be placing my Slider on sale if anyone is interested. It is also a great device.

Did you look at gVoice? It's on sale for $.99 and looks to be a competitor to GrooveIP. Probably won't solve the lag problem though.

 

[itsrayray]

Why not pm this stuff instead of dumping on someones thread? I understand trying to help but not within a thread for a specific app.

Sent from your mom's phone.

 

[mknollman123]

Why not pm this stuff instead of dumping on someones thread? I understand trying to help but not within a thread for a specific app.

Sent from your mom's phone.

I disagree - its hard to talk about Coke without mentioning pepsi or chevy without Ford - if he had mentioned some random app I would agree with you, but the app he mentioned is a direct competitor and could possibly have solved an issue with the app mentioned here.

to compare the 2 i grabbed gvoice while it was 99c - and its not bad.

not a huge lag difference, but I only tested so far on my home wifi - it was better but not really by much - and grooveip does well on home wifi as well.

The question will behow it compares over mifi and over 3g.

I will say that as far as the experience goes - grooveip has a much nicer fit and finish, deeper and more intuitive options and menus, and is an all around better looking app. But for me it is function first then form so if gvoice can resolve some of the lag over 3g (kind of doubt it, but for 99c why not try) I will deal with its homeliness. I will try and remember to update here.

 

[snrb_labs]

Well, my grand dreams of a galaxy device and a $20 monthly bill have been dashed by lag.
I have found that in my house on wifi GrooveIP is at least servcieable but as soon as it is on a 3g connection (via mifi or directly from a phone) it is all but useless.

I do still plan on using it via wifi and google voice for myself and my wife to stay within our minutes (especially her lol) and even for just that it is well worth the $1.50 - but if I cannot use it outside of the house then a cell phone replacement it is not.

In the process of playing with this I remembered how much I really liked my OV - just switched back to it and the harmonia 2 rom - think I will be placing my Slider on sale if anyone is interested. It is also a great device.

Ya, your performance over 3G is going to depend on the speed and quality of the network connection. If there is latency on the network connection you will get lag, no way to avoid that. Over WiFi the quality will be more consistent.

 

[niftypixel]

I've experienced what everyone describes as 'low mic' and muffledness. I've had to uninstall/abandon this app for now unfortunately, seeing as it's the only viable method at the moment for us Optimus V'rs it's a shame =|

It's great and encouraging to know one of the dev's is on this thread though! Android community is insanely awesome!

 

[curtis1973]

i dont understand why call quality is so bad and has the delays on 3g. i recall a video game system called sega dreamcast that made crystal clear phone calls on a voip client that ran on a 56k DIAL UP connection via the dreamcast modem.

 

[snrb_labs]

i dont understand why call quality is so bad and has the delays on 3g. i recall a video game system called sega dreamcast that made crystal clear phone calls on a voip client that ran on a 56k DIAL UP connection via the dreamcast modem.

Google only supports the G711 codec. Which requires 80 kbps upload and download bandwidth. The advantage is your voice isn't compressed at all. The disadvantage is the bandwidth limitation.

The other thing that causes problems on 3G is jitter. Depending on your service provider, the signal strength you have, and the quality of your connection, the connection can have a lot of variance. Voice packets should be received as close as possible to every 20 ms. If you have one packet take 19 ms and the next take 200 ms then the next 10 ms that can cause voice quality to become choppy.

 

[asadullah]

I keep getting an erro that says I'm sorry your call can't be completed at this time??? I'm using an lg marquee from sprint with updated groove ip and google voice

 

[Sean OGorman]

I've had no problems over Wifi or 3G. The only issue I have is that I can't use my Bluetooth headset with my Vizio tablet.