jplee3

For the Obi at least, I think I had to make sure I was forwarding calls to Google Chat in the settings @ voice.google.com

As far as receiving calls on your Hangouts/Hangouts Dialer app, I think as long as you turn on the "Incoming Phone Calls" option, the phone should start ringing. Especially if, with any of these devices, you are able to make calls out. It's weird if none of those things are resolving the problem.

Stgermainparis

Yeah. I've done all that. The Obi can make outgoing but I can't even get it to make an incoming test call. The whole thing is messed up. Gonna work on it again today.

donpauly

Hey all i know this is an old thread and i have questions to ask on this.


I got a google voice number a while back in the US. I used it to call and receive calls for free as long as i had wifi on my iphone. I then have been outside the US many times and used google voice to call the US for free. I know google voice/hangouts is free to use as long as you are in us or canada etc. The thing is i been out of the us/canada and still use google voice/hangouts to call people in us/canada etc. Im located in mexico.


I recalled once i had deleted hangouts and tried reinstalling it. When i did this, i no longer could make free phone calls to the us/canada because it recognized me as being in mexico etc. So you had to purchase credit for it if you wanted to use it to call us/canada etc. I didnt purchase any credit. But when i was in the us, i had reinstalled google hangouts. Then back in mexico, my google voice worked again and i could make calls for free etc. Someone had mentioned the reason for this is because if they recognize you outside the usa/canada, you have to pay to make calls. I think its only 1 or 2 cents a minute which is nothing but usually i like to call for a very long time etc. Still its pretty cheap etc.


The old phone that i used was an iphone 4s. I then started using an iphone SE but did not purchase a mexican sim card for it. I basically used it for everything else such as google voice, such as calling to the us etc and everything. Well i then went and got a mexican sim card for this iphone SE as i did not like having to carry about 2 iphones etc. The iphone 4s at the time had lot of battery issues etc. Well what i noticed recently was when i tried to make a phone call on my google hangouts, i cannot make any free calls. It says it cost 1 or 2 cents a minute to make a call.


Is the reason for this due to me getting a sim card for my iphone se? The thing though is the mexican cell number that i used on my iphone 4s, i asked the carrier here that i wanted to keep my old number. Thus i want to use that phone number on my iphone SE and needed the sim card for the iphone. The iphone 4s sim card did not fit this iphone SE.


So could putting a sim card into my iphone SE have caused this? I liked using hangouts a lot since i could call usa/canada absolutely free. Now it seems like i have to buy credit for it now? So they detect that im in mexico now as oppose to us due to that sim card put into my iphone se? It should have nothing to do with me having the number transferred to this iphone right? As my google hangouts worked fine both in my iphone 4s and my iphone SE before i got a sim card for the iphone SE etc.

donpauly

Also does anyone know if i have to buy google voice credit to use? Or would it use any credit from my mexican cell phone carrier? I do have mexican cell credit on this phone etc.


Also does anyone know if i get charged for sending text messages as well? And how much? And would it be deducted from my mexican cell credit?


The thing is i know the last time i had this issue was me reinstalling google hangouts while in mexico and thus they recognized i was in mexico and i could not call for free. But when i reinstalled hangouts in the usa, then used it without an issue... then was in mexico... the system seemed to think i was still in the us and thats why my google voice worked etc. But does that means that me getting a sim card for this phone must have caused google voice to recognize im in mexico as oppose to the us?


Would like if any google voice/hangout experts can give advice on this. I know when ppl go on vacation outside the usa/canada, they can still use google voice to call the us for free as long as they have wifi. And i had no issues making google voice calls for free from my hangout apps on my iphone UNTIL i got a sim card for the iphone SE... and the sim card is a mexican sim card since thats where im located at.


And if that is the case, is there a way for me to fix this issue? Such as it recognizes me in the us and then i can continue to use hangouts while in mexico? thanks.


Im curious if anyone here say went to a country for vacation for a bit, used google hangouts to call the us/canada for free using wifi. Then got a sim card in that country whether its mexico, or any country in europe or any other country... then google hangouts no longer works and it charges you to make phone calls. Because im thinking the only thing that could have caused this was me getting a mexican sim card for this iphone SE.


Also if i dont buy any google voice credit and text people using my google voice number, would it deduct credit from my mexican cell credit? And if so, how much? Would it cost money if i receive texts to my google voice number? What about incoming calls? Can i even receive incoming calls from the us etc? And if so how much?


Obviously i want google voice to recognize im still in the us, so i could call to usa/canada and text for free while in mexico. So if anyone knows the issue here, i appreciate the advice.

Dubai Stu

I am in the Netherlands right now and am calling the US for free. It works fine. Another work-around is to sign up for a $5 sip account from Simonics which is linked to your Google Voice account. If you call via Simonics you use a foreign IP to connect to Simonics and it uses a US server to connect to Google.

Denolloyd

I had had a similar issue when installing hangouts on my new iPhone 7. When calling the US from Malaysia, the app would request a credit. I "fixed" the issue by adding a + before the US number I was dialing. So long as I add the +, no credit is required. Give it a shot.

donpauly

Where is the + on google hangouts? I checked my previous calls when it worked a while back before i put in the sim card and they do seem to have the + .

vsuri

On iOS, hold down the button for 0 for +.

TWA884

Same for Android.

donpauly

When i do this, it shows 0.07 a minute instead of 0.01.

donpauly

Im thinking that the new sim card probably caused this right? I could call and receive with google hangouts with no issues earlier.

sillypainter

Because you didn't put a 1 after the +. For example to dial +12125551212 is a call to US, but if you dial +2125551212, it's like calling Morocco which is obviously expensive hence the $0.07/min.

der_saeufer

I have an American phone with a UK SIM and am sitting in Belgium and can still call the US for free in Hangouts. I can also call from Hangouts on my Belgian work phone for free.

If you have a non-US SIM in your phone, you do need to put the +1 to call the US--just like the 'regular' dialler, Hangouts assumes that any number without a country code is local to your SIM.

(Unsolicited advice: it's good practice to store your entire phone book with + and country codes, even if you and 99% of your contacts are in the same country.)