Comments on: A simple feature request to make Google Voice vastly better

By: Amelia Maddox

Amelia Maddox — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 20:28:16 +0000

What Justin is describing is the solution to your problem. It is not called Call Presentation anymore though, it is now called “Call Screening,” and you can find it under Voice Settings > Calls > Call Screening. Set it to ON, and it will solve the voicemail problem. Every single call to your GV number will definitely go to your GV voicemail. However, the downside is that you have to press 1 to accept every call. Very aggravating. I also wish they would add a “ring threshold” setting to GV. My problem is that my office desk phone cannot be adjusted for ring threshold, so it’s vmail always picks up first unless I have Call Screening ON.

By: JohnW

JohnW — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 23:07:56 +0000

Did the call screening solve your problem? Even if your mobile voicemail system picks up, the caller still gets the GV voicemail because your mobile voicemail doesn't "press 1 to answer."

By: Brice

Brice — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:31:40 +0000

Go here and formally suggest the feature. I called it "Ring Threshold" and suggested it under the headings "Settings" and "Voicemail."

By: Brice

Brice — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:21:55 +0000

What Justin is describing is the solution to your problem. It is not called Call Presentation anymore though, it is now called "Call Screening," and you can find it under Voice Settings > Calls > Call Screening. Set it to ON, and it will solve the voicemail problem. Every single call to your GV number will definitely go to your GV voicemail. However, the downside is that you have to press 1 to accept every call. Very aggravating. I also wish they would add a "ring threshold" setting to GV.

My problem is that my office desk phone cannot be adjusted for ring threshold, so it's vmail always picks up first unless I have Call Screening ON.

By: Justin

Justin — Sun, 23 May 2010 21:15:00 +0000

you need to enable call presentation. tho I just looked at the settings and can't find where it is – they may have disabled it

this means that you have to make a physical action (press 1) whenever a call comes in. But this is how GV knows that you have picked up, as opposed to the voicemail on that phone picking up. So unless it hears that 1, it always goes to GV voicemail, even if, for example, your cell phone voicemail kicks in before you answer your desk phone (the cell phone voicemail will be blank)

By: Tim

Tim — Sun, 23 May 2010 19:11:20 +0000

Sean,
Many GV'ers – especially those using GV as a business tool – have fought the same issue. Your suggestion would be one among many welcomed improvements before GV is to telecom as Gmail is to email.

Unfortunately Jeff's reply above is the only solution for your issue. Set your mobile device to forward to its own (AT&T, I guess) voicemail *after* GV takes back it's calls (about 25 seconds (5 rings) , if memory serves). Asking your personal contacts to wait through 30 seconds of ringing, then your personal VM message, then the nice AT&T lady before leaving their own message is a lot to ask these days, but it's the best GV has to offer, for now.

By: Sean Tierney

Sean Tierney — Sun, 23 May 2010 15:08:10 +0000

Jeff & Chuck,
thanks for the suggestions. The reason I can't do what you're proposing is because I want friends that call my cell to get my personal voicemail. Would like to keep my business calls in Google Voice and personal calls on AT&T voicemail.

Having the ability at the GV level to intelligently intercept calls after a certain number of rings and route them to GV voicemail (or to cascade to another phone number) is the ideal solution. What you made me realize though is maybe there's a way to configure the phone to selectively forward calls from the GV number after a certain # of rings… will check into it and report back if I find something.

By: jeff

jeff — Sun, 23 May 2010 09:06:12 +0000

Have you tried looking at your phone voice mail settings to see if there is a way to force it to wait longer before taking the call to voice mail (like longer than Google Voice is waiting)? Alternately, you might try messing around with your phone's settings for where unanswered calls get forwarded. I changed the number in those settings to my Google Voice number on my Android phone and all unanswered calls get taken by Google Voice now. I'm using the Google Voice service differently than you, so your mileage may vary (like you may throw yourself into a call loop) but it's worth a shot.

By: Chuck Reynolds

Chuck Reynolds — Sun, 23 May 2010 06:13:58 +0000

So what I do is forward all my personal stuff to GV so that and my g.voice (biz) number all go to the same place for VM's…

Go to the Keypad, type in *004*your_google_voice_number#

That will forward your voicemails to your cell to GV. Not sure that's your ultimate dream solution but it works great for me :)