Google Voice is both my love and my nemesis.
November 6, 2023 9:22 AM Subscribe
How do I make Google Voice work better for me? I need to automate turning it off each day and I need to save contacts. Neither is working.
I have a hectic job and I get anywhere from 50-75 calls a day. I work from home these days, so there is no "work phone" to give clients I work with. I set up a Google Voice number, so most people call me on that and it rings on my personal cell phone. So personal calls come in on my regular number and work calls come in on my google number (but both to the same cell phone.) I have a couple issues though that I cannot solve through searching online:
1. No matter how much I tell people NOT to call me outside of work hours, they still do. I can toggle google voice on and off manually, so I only get contacted during work hours.
But sometimes I forget and then get bothered at like midnight on a Saturday. How do I set up a schedule so it goes to Do Not Disturb at 5pm each day? Note, I have a regular google voice, NOT a work account. I could switch to a work one if needed but ONLY if I can keep the number I already have.
2. I cant figure out how to save contacts in Google Voice. I go to "contacts" while in the Google Voice app, I hit "add new contacts", but it brings me to the contacts for my regular phone. Which I cannot access while in Google Voice. Plus I dont want to click on a name and accidentally call them from my personal number and now they have it and can drive me crazy.
Getting a separate work phone is not possible. I need to figure out how to make both numbers exist separately on the same Android phone. Help!
I have a hectic job and I get anywhere from 50-75 calls a day. I work from home these days, so there is no "work phone" to give clients I work with. I set up a Google Voice number, so most people call me on that and it rings on my personal cell phone. So personal calls come in on my regular number and work calls come in on my google number (but both to the same cell phone.) I have a couple issues though that I cannot solve through searching online:
1. No matter how much I tell people NOT to call me outside of work hours, they still do. I can toggle google voice on and off manually, so I only get contacted during work hours.
But sometimes I forget and then get bothered at like midnight on a Saturday. How do I set up a schedule so it goes to Do Not Disturb at 5pm each day? Note, I have a regular google voice, NOT a work account. I could switch to a work one if needed but ONLY if I can keep the number I already have.
2. I cant figure out how to save contacts in Google Voice. I go to "contacts" while in the Google Voice app, I hit "add new contacts", but it brings me to the contacts for my regular phone. Which I cannot access while in Google Voice. Plus I dont want to click on a name and accidentally call them from my personal number and now they have it and can drive me crazy.
Getting a separate work phone is not possible. I need to figure out how to make both numbers exist separately on the same Android phone. Help!
I have been using Google Voice since it was Grand Central. (Those were the days...) If you are using a personal (not Work) GV number, it will use your Android or Google contacts app. You are using a GV number associated with your personal email. Google has no reason to believe you want to separate out certain numbers as business from personal. You actually can do it after the fact by setting up a "business" group. You can filter your contacts by group.
I do not know if you can transfer your GV number to a work account. I suspect you can with help from your work administrator, but I think I have a work around. I KNOW you can transfer your GV number from one GMail account to another. So, setup a new GMail account. Call it Silverstatuework@gmail. Then transfer the number to that email. This can be done through the settings in GV on a web browser (and likely in the app, but I never tried it in the app). Then, when you add a contact, add it to that new email accounts contacts and do not sync those contacts with any of your other GMail accounts on your phone.
When you transfer the number to a new regular GMail account, you will likely have to reattach your direct cell number to it. Not a big deal as it will still ring through on your phone. If you want to add a person contact later on, you might have to manually go into the contacts app and do it there. If I recall, there is also a setting in GV to save all your calls to your contacts. Do not enable that, and, if necessary, disable it if it is defaulted to on.
As for a DND schedule through GV, I do not think it can be done through the native app. I have no idea if Tasker or some other similar app can do it. I schedule DND through the Android OS settings. It DNDs everyone for certain hours except those you designate. I have my kids and my gf and my brothers that get through regardless of the time. All others do not ring through from 20:00 - 8:00.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 12:05 PM on November 6, 2023
I do not know if you can transfer your GV number to a work account. I suspect you can with help from your work administrator, but I think I have a work around. I KNOW you can transfer your GV number from one GMail account to another. So, setup a new GMail account. Call it Silverstatuework@gmail. Then transfer the number to that email. This can be done through the settings in GV on a web browser (and likely in the app, but I never tried it in the app). Then, when you add a contact, add it to that new email accounts contacts and do not sync those contacts with any of your other GMail accounts on your phone.
When you transfer the number to a new regular GMail account, you will likely have to reattach your direct cell number to it. Not a big deal as it will still ring through on your phone. If you want to add a person contact later on, you might have to manually go into the contacts app and do it there. If I recall, there is also a setting in GV to save all your calls to your contacts. Do not enable that, and, if necessary, disable it if it is defaulted to on.
As for a DND schedule through GV, I do not think it can be done through the native app. I have no idea if Tasker or some other similar app can do it. I schedule DND through the Android OS settings. It DNDs everyone for certain hours except those you designate. I have my kids and my gf and my brothers that get through regardless of the time. All others do not ring through from 20:00 - 8:00.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 12:05 PM on November 6, 2023
According to the Google help docs it looks like if you are using a Google work email you can set your work hours in the calendar and Google Voice would/should automatically switch Do Not Disturb on or off based on that but I'm assuming you would also need to be using a work Google Voice number linked to the work account for this work.
posted by eatcake at 4:40 PM on November 6, 2023
posted by eatcake at 4:40 PM on November 6, 2023
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For 2) this may be a bit of workaround. Get to your launcher desktop, and drop the 3-space widget from GV. The first button (to the left) is a config switch that tells Google whether calling out should be done with the GV number, the phone's number, and so on. Leave it on "ask per call", maybe that will help your problem.
Bonus: the middle button is a manual toggle for DND for GV, but you probably already know that.
posted by kschang at 9:48 AM on November 6, 2023