So, I am tired of carrying around 2 phones - one for work, one personal. I decided that since I have Sprint I'd try the seamless porting of my number over to Google Voice.
The challenge that I faced was that I currently use and love the flexibility of Youmail's VM system and did not want to give that up in favor of Google Voice's VM system. I spent the better part of my day messing around with the various settings, reading countless forums, and annoying the crap out of my girlfriend while testing it all out...Here are the end results of my efforts. I hope to hell this helps someone out! :)
I use a Sprint Palm Pre for my personal phone. It has served me well for the past 2 years, so I haven't bothered to replace it yet. I'm at the end of my contract, so I'm toying with just using a single phone.
Recently, I got a new AT&T iPhone 4 for work. Nice phone, I admit - and it doesn't violate my anti-Apple policies since work is paying for it!
The Objective
- Carry the iPhone 4 and leave the Palm Pre at home
- Use Google Voice with my current Sprint Phone Number to forward calls to the iPhone
- Use Youmail to answer voice mail instead of Google Voice
Limitations
- Google Voice does not yet support Picture/Video/MMS Messaging (I found this out late)
- While this sucks, you'll still get them on your Sprint phone using this method.
- This method will require you to use Youmail for both phones. Not a big deal, as you can use a recorded greeting and tell Youmail to use it for all of your work contacts. (wildcard entries are great for this).
- I'm sure I'll find something else, and will update this if I do.
- I have not experimented to see if distinctive ringtones, etc are affected yet.
Let me say upfront that while this method did work for me, YMMV. I have not explored the options or codes that a Verizon iPhone would need, I am not a phone tech by trade, and I cannot speak for how this might work for any other carrier/phone combinations. Nonetheless, the steps are failry straightforward and are reversible should you decide to try it out and then bail at the last minute. My goal, as I stated before, is to simply save you guys some hours of Google-Fu in trying to find a method that works. It is my way of "Paying IT Forward" and thanking everyone in the other forums.
How To
The first thing you're going to need is a Google Voice and a Youmail account. You will also need a Google Voice and Youmail mobile app.
I'll assume that if you're reading this, you are familiar with these and are simply pissed that Google hijacks your voice mail...The only important things in setting these up are:
- You don't need a premium Youmail account
- You do NOT have to port your number to Google Voice permanently.
- Simply get a new number to begin. I'll cover using your Sprint number in a bit.
Youmail Setup
Once you have your accounts, get Youmail working on both of your phones with the proper verification codes, settings, and personal preferences and test them out in their default states to ensure everything is working - just a basic setup.
You will find most of what you need by logging into Youmail and clicking on "My Account" and then "My Phones." Add both phones; I actually left the Palm Pre as the default to receive alerts, because my text messages go through the Google Voice system and I don't want or need duplicate notifications. I do not use any email notifications.
Here is what my "My Alerts" section looks like:
Next, you need to configure Google Voice.
Google Voice Setup
If you're using Sprint, then you have a cool option to seamlessly move back and forth between Google Voice and your phone. You can read the basic instructions HERE
Remember, if you are a new Google Voice user, you want to first select the option to create a new Google Voice phone number. Once you are done, login and go to your phone options.
You should see this option: "Enable Google Voice on your Sprint mobile phone."
Select this, and step through the process, choosing Option 1: Use your Sprint number with Google Voice.
Next, setup your forwarding options. Select the checkboxes to forward calls to both phones.
Do NOT activate Google voicemail on the non-Sprint phone!
It should look something like this:
At this point, you should have all calls being forwarded to the iPhone, but Google's voicemail will intercept calls and you will get the Google greeting.
In order to get Youmail to answer first, you'll need to do some phone hackery and adjust one other setting within Google Voice.
First, go back into your Google Voice settings, and click on the "Calls" tab. In here, you need to turn off call screening. Youmail simply will not work if this is enabled. It should look like this:
Phone Settings
For the hackery, we need to adjust the voicemail timings so that the phone's voicemail will pickup before Google Voice does.
On the AT&T iPhone, this means that you will need to perform the following:
From the iPhone keypad, make a call to this number: * # 61 #
This will forward to your voice mail. Write down the number that this forward to... it's shown as the number after "Forwards to".
From the iPhone keypad, dial the following number:
* 61 * 1<voice mail number>*11*<voice mail delay in seconds>#
In the above number, substitute your 10-digit voice mail number for the <voice mail number> text and substitute your desired delay for <voice mail delay in seconds> Note that your voice mail number may not be your actual phone number. In both cases, make sure you also take out the < and > symbols.
Here's what an actual number might look like if you were calling from a movie: *61*18005551212*11*15#
In this case, the delay would be decreased from 20 seconds to 15 seconds. 30 seconds is the maximum delay allowed, so don't bother entering a larger value.
Once you call this number, you should see something along the lines of the following on your iPhone:
Setting Activation Succeeded
Voice Call Forwarding
When Unanswered
Thanks goes to the the folks at tipstrs.com who originally posted this trick
If all goes well, Youmail should now be receiving all voicemail for your Sprint or non-Sprint phone, bypassing Google Voice entirely.
Conclusion
I'm still playing with this setup, and for the most part, I like it. Picture mail and MMS go to my Sprint phone for retrieval later, and everything else goes directly to the iPhone. I've noticed a couple of duplicate text messages but these were few...I'll monitor and report my findings once I've tested this longer. Tomorrow, I'll try to leave the Palm Pre at home (or at least in my car or something) to test it all out. As I mentioned before, this is simple to reverse in the case that I want to go back to the old way of simply using Youmail on my Sprint phone, the AT&T voicemail on my iPhone, and Google Voice voicemail on my Google Voice number...Good luck!
If I missed a step, please let me know in the comments.
