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

[kameleon]

I have an odd question. I am currently a blackberry user and am about to jump ship to VM and use groove ip. On my BB I use smrtguard heavily for its "spam" call block feature. There is a smrtguard app for android as it is very similar. What I need to know is does anyone else use the call "spam" feature and have it working on groove ip? I plan to port my existing phone number to google voice and I want to import my block list though so my phone don't blow up. Anyone try this or any other call block feature with groove IP?

 

[kameleon]

I can confirm that the above question is a big 'ol NO! Smrtguard's "spam" feature does not block calls that come in on groove IP. Not a biggie though as if I end up doing this I will simply add the numbers to google voice and block them there.

Another question for those that have ported their numbers to google voice and are using groove IP.... How are you doing your texts? Do you just have a separate "text only" number like your VM number or do you use the google voice app and do texts that way?

Also, one thing for snrb_labs: In my testing I have found something odd. When I call my google voice number associated with my groove ip I get these results:

audio from caller to groove ip is delayed about 1.5 seconds
audio from groove ip to caller is delayed about .5 seconds

The .5 seconds is decent considering the price I am paying for the service. However the 1.5 seconds can get a little nerve racking on a long call. I first noticed this when I was talking to my friend the other day and I would answer a question he asked but his response to me was well into his next sentence. I decided to do some testing on my own and used my AT&T cellphone as the "caller" and my optimus v with groove ip as the callee. To do the test I would mute the mic on whichever I was testing the receiving part. So when I tested the audio from the at&t phone to the groove ip I would mute the groove ip and vice versa. It does not make much of a difference time wise if I am on 3G or wifi. Although on wifi it does not deviate much at all where on 3G it does depend on signal strength. All tests so far have been with 4 or 5 bars of 3G on my optimus V.

 

[snrb_labs]

I can confirm that the above question is a big 'ol NO! Smrtguard's "spam" feature does not block calls that come in on groove IP. Not a biggie though as if I end up doing this I will simply add the numbers to google voice and block them there.

Another question for those that have ported their numbers to google voice and are using groove IP.... How are you doing your texts? Do you just have a separate "text only" number like your VM number or do you use the google voice app and do texts that way?

Also, one thing for snrb_labs: In my testing I have found something odd. When I call my google voice number associated with my groove ip I get these results:

audio from caller to groove ip is delayed about 1.5 seconds
audio from groove ip to caller is delayed about .5 seconds

The .5 seconds is decent considering the price I am paying for the service. However the 1.5 seconds can get a little nerve racking on a long call. I first noticed this when I was talking to my friend the other day and I would answer a question he asked but his response to me was well into his next sentence. I decided to do some testing on my own and used my AT&T cellphone as the "caller" and my optimus v with groove ip as the callee. To do the test I would mute the mic on whichever I was testing the receiving part. So when I tested the audio from the at&t phone to the groove ip I would mute the groove ip and vice versa. It does not make much of a difference time wise if I am on 3G or wifi. Although on wifi it does not deviate much at all where on 3G it does depend on signal strength. All tests so far have been with 4 or 5 bars of 3G on my optimus V.

We play voice as soon as it's received. No buffering or anything. That amount of lag is pretty excessive. Is it every call? Or only incoming ones? Not really sure what can be done about that, we can't really control voice from the caller.

 

[JerryScript]

The lag seems to be directly related to signal strength. At home where I get poor 3G service, GrooveIP is pretty much unuseable over 3G, while at work where I get a great 3G signal, the lag is less .5sec.

I use wifi at home, so this isn't an issue for me.

 

[snrb_labs]

The lag seems to be directly related to signal strength. At home where I get poor 3G service, GrooveIP is pretty much unuseable over 3G, while at work where I get a great 3G signal, the lag is less .5sec.

I use wifi at home, so this isn't an issue for me.

Ya, latency and slow speeds will cause lag. The more latency or slower the connection the more lag that happens.

 

[kameleon]

We play voice as soon as it's received. No buffering or anything. That amount of lag is pretty excessive. Is it every call? Or only incoming ones? Not really sure what can be done about that, we can't really control voice from the caller.

It seems to be every call. At least the ones I have been able to test. I have tried my cell (AT&T) and landline and both have the delay going to groove ip. Both in and out. In all my testing I have four or five bars (out of 5) of 3G on the optimus v. I am going to test setting up my asterisk box with my google voice account and see if I can get the csipsimple app configured so I can see if it is just my data connection or what. I also was going to try to record the conversation via the google voice deal but that would only record what I hear I think.

I really like what you are doing here and the super fast replies. I personally can make this work for me, but as for my wife I will need to get the delay down to around .5 sec on the inbound audio ti make her happy.

 

[snrb_labs]

It seems to be every call. At least the ones I have been able to test. I have tried my cell (AT&T) and landline and both have the delay going to groove ip. Both in and out. In all my testing I have four or five bars (out of 5) of 3G on the optimus v. I am going to test setting up my asterisk box with my google voice account and see if I can get the csipsimple app configured so I can see if it is just my data connection or what. I also was going to try to record the conversation via the google voice deal but that would only record what I hear I think.

I really like what you are doing here and the super fast replies. I personally can make this work for me, but as for my wife I will need to get the delay down to around .5 sec on the inbound audio ti make her happy.

Run a speed test on your optimus. Can use the speedtest.net app on the market. The app needs 85kbps upload and download at an absolute minimum.

 

[kameleon]

Hmmmm.... This is interesting. 1367ms ping time, 127kbps down, 253kbps up. Something seems fishy there.

 

[asadullah]

Hmmmm.... This is interesting. 1367ms ping time, 127kbps down, 253kbps up. Something seems fishy there.

I don't know if it's just me but sometimes when I try to make a call it freezes my phone. I notice it the most when I switch from 3g to wifi or vice versa.

 

[kameleon]

It seems that the speeds are all over the map for me. Just tested again from same location (at my desk) and got a very different result: 1812ms ping, 13kbps down, 222kbps up. Although just 2 minutes before my phone showed I was on 1x instead of 3G and I ran a test just to see: 41ms ping, 127kbps down, 139kbps up. I am wondering if I don't have something going on with my phone.

 

[kameleon]

I don't know if it's just me but sometimes when I try to make a call it freezes my phone. I notice it the most when I switch from 3g to wifi or vice versa.

When I go from wifi to 3G or vice versa groove ip disconnects totally and does not want to reconnect. So with that I usually just leave 3G on and wifi off.

 

[vee]

When I go from wifi to 3G or vice versa groove ip disconnects totally and does not want to reconnect. So with that I usually just leave 3G on and wifi off.

I exit the app whenever I switch networks, just like any other app that uses the internet that is currently runnin. Never had a problem that way.

 

[snrb_labs]

I exit the app whenever I switch networks, just like any other app that uses the internet that is currently runnin. Never had a problem that way.

In this next update we're trying to get rid of those sign in issues. There's one particular one right now that blocks further sign in attempts until you restart the app.

 

[pcp135]

I just purchased this app solely b/c how the devs are responding to the users here and other forums. I hope the trend will continue so that I can downgrade the Optimus to the $25/mo plan from the current $40/mo.

I also wish there was a trial version where you could make one or two 5 minute calls. I am sure this is more difficult to implement than just asking for it though

 

[kameleon]

In this next update we're trying to get rid of those sign in issues. There's one particular one right now that blocks further sign in attempts until you restart the app.

That sounds cool. I just wish there was a way to keep 3G data on along side wifi like on my blackberry. Then I could make groove ip use only 3G all the time while I allow my other apps to use wifi when available. That would be awesome but alas I have yet to have found a way to do that.

As for the speed test deal I think there was just a fluke yesterday when I ran it from work. Once I got home I ran it 2 more times, once this morning, and again this morning from work. Here are the results:

home yesterday:
480ms ping, 716kbps down, 655kbps up
478ms ping, 762kbps down, 575kbps up

home this morning:
443ms ping, 346kbps down, 537kbps up

work this morning:
462ms ping, 742kbps down, 716kbps up

So then I tried another test call. This time I called my desk phone here at work from groove ip. Same audio lag as before, audio from groove ip to caller is within half second where as audio from caller to groove ip is delayed up to 2 seconds. I actually timed it this time with a stopwatch. So then immediately after terminating the call I ran another speed test. Ping went to 2192ms and up/down was 397kbps/330kbps respectively. I think the ping is excessive though. Not sure what is going on there. Then within 3 minutes I run the test again and ping is back down to 459ms. Another call but this time from my desk phone to groove ip. This time audio both ways was delayed about the same at 1.5-2.0 seconds.

And finally I decided to test it via wifi. All I can say is OMG! No matter which way the call originates audio is delivered to its destination within .5 seconds no matter what! So the issue is definitely the 3G network.

So in my testing I am trying to find a way to allow calls to be routed via the cellular network when/if groove ip is unable to connect. I tried signing out of groove ip and then make a call from my phone. It told me that groove ip is unavailable and had a button to hit for "mobile network". (previously I had told it to ONLY use groove ip for calls) I like that. I have google voice setup on the phone also for my text messages and such and set it to route all calls through google voice. So my outbound number will always be the same. Only issue is when I have an incoming call it will initially ring my groove ip but then within 2 seconds, before the accept button appears, my phones "phone app" pops up and asks me to accept or ignore instead of groove ip. I have looked around but I don't see an easy way to change this behavior as I am sure it is all on Google's end and nothing to do with groove ip. Just throwing it out there.

Let me say that I am not complaining. I am just simply sharing my testing results to try to maybe help make this a better app. snrb_labs: if there is anything else I can do to help, please let me know.

 

[snrb_labs]

I just purchased this app solely b/c how the devs are responding to the users here and other forums. I hope the trend will continue so that I can downgrade the Optimus to the $25/mo plan from the current $40/mo.

I also wish there was a trial version where you could make one or two 5 minute calls. I am sure this is more difficult to implement than just asking for it though

Hi, we don't have a trial version yet, but we do have a very liberal refund policy right now. We're a pretty small team, right now we're focused on improving the app. Once this sign in issue is resolved we'll likely take a look at creating a trial version.

 

[mmarz]

That sounds cool. I just wish there was a way to keep 3G data on along side wifi like on my blackberry. Then I could make groove ip use only 3G all the time while I allow my other apps to use wifi when available. That would be awesome but alas I have yet to have found a way to do that.

I actually accidentally enabled this to happen on the optimus once. I used an unsigned version of the phone.apk and it never shutdown the 3G when the wifi connected. I'm not sure how you would tell app which connection to use, but in theory, what you want is possible with this phone. I never tested it further but it is worth a shot.

Here is how I did it. Get apk manager on your desktop. Use it to decompile Phone.apk from /system/app. Don't alter anything and compile the apk. Press yes for it being a system apk and yes to the next option, and then enter again. Get unsignedPhone.apk from the modding folder, rename it to Phone.apk and push it back into /system/app and set the correct read/write permissions.

 

[vee]

I actually accidentally enabled this to happen on the optimus once. I used an unsigned version of the phone.apk and it never shutdown the 3G when the wifi connected. I'm not sure how you would tell app which connection to use, but in theory, what you want is possible with this phone. I never tested it further but it is worth a shot.

Here is how I did it. Get apk manager on your desktop. Use it to decompile Phone.apk from /system/app. Don't alter anything and compile the apk. Press yes for it being a system apk and yes to the next option, and then enter again. Get unsignedPhone.apk from the modding folder, rename it to Phone.apk and push it back into /system/app and set the correct read/write permissions.

Aren't there firewalls that allow you to disable certain networks for whatever app you choose?

Sent from my VM670 using Tapatalk

 

[pcp135]

Hi, we don't have a trial version yet, but we do have a very liberal refund policy right now. We're a pretty small team, right now we're focused on improving the app. Once this sign in issue is resolved we'll likely take a look at creating a trial version.

No worries, I already bought the app Not having a trial version kept me on the fence for a long time until I saw what you guys are doing here and how other users are liking the app. This is the only app I have paid for so that should tell you something...I am a cheap skates

 

[mmarz]

Aren't there firewalls that allow you to disable certain networks for whatever app you choose?

Sent from my VM670 using Tapatalk

Droidwall does what you are saying, but I don't think that would help.