4 ms·

First Google voice, now this. Le sigh... I was in the business of mobile applications pre-iPhone, the era of phone companies picking winners or trying to do th

First Google voice, now this. Le sigh... I was in the business of mobile applications pre-iPhone, the era of phone companies picking winners or trying to do things themselves and the net result was that most mobile functionality beyond the basics was garbage. Not just the devices but the poor choices mediocre people at some high-mid level in the phone companies would make on all kinds of weak decision making criteria led to bad poorly thought out software choices, both on the consumer side and the enterprise side. Of course carriers thought it was in their best interests and that they could beat market based product discovery. Neither was really true as the explosion of innovation caused by the iPhone and the cadre of early post-iPhone mobile app developers demonstrated. This kind of move by Verizon is a misguided step back to that world. It's frustrating and stupid and in the long run unlikely to be a win for Verizon, despite any short term gain for some internal project or other built by a second rate team put together to defend someone's budget allocation.

drivebyacct2 14y ago
Why the mention of Google Voice? I've never had an issue using Google Voice w/ Verizon, all the way back to Droid OG days.
- richardjordan 14y ago
  I moved to Verizon on my birthday on the 8th of this month. Finally ditched T-mobile to get an iPhone. I have been using Google Voice as my sole number for years now. It's very important to me. I even explained this when buying. Turns out that unannounced Verizon has started blocking Google Voice verifying your number do I cannot use it. At first I thought it was a blip but lots of Googling has discovered this appears to be a change as it's hitting everyone. If anyone can show me a fix and where I'm wrong I will happily stand corrected. But to this date every attempt to get my phone added to Google Voice has failed and blocking appears to be going on. I would not be surprised if existing iPhone Google Voice users are fine if they've already verified their number. I have no idea.
  - drivebyacct2 14y ago
    On one hand I want to try. On the other hand I'll be furious if VZW actively attempts to keep me from having that functionality. Why would they care?
    - richardjordan 14y ago
      I've been trying to fathom that myself. It could be Apple pressure; it could be their intention to bring out a competing service; it could be they feel this competes with an existing service. It may just be a way to push more people into porting numbers in some misguided attempt at raising the hassle factor of leaving Vz in the future. Whatever the reasoning I think it's short sighted and I find it very frustrating.
    - richardjordan 14y ago
      For completeness after a month of trying it's now verifying - so maybe it was a blip, maybe they tried something and thought better of it.
  - w1ntermute 14y ago
    > Turns out that unannounced Verizon has started blocking Google Voice verifying your number do I cannot use it. How exactly do they block it? According to the verification instructions[0], Google Voice calls you and asks you to enter a verification code. How can this be blocked? It would be like any other DTMF service. Also, isn't it illegal to block this? 0: http://support.google.com/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=144586 http://support.google.com/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answ...
    - richardjordan 14y ago
      Oh, I know how it works :-) ...it just doesn't any more. I don't know of any legality blocking such a call but I can assure you no matter how many times I trigger the verification process I get nothing but an error message and no call or text from Mr Google.
      - 14y ago

drivebyacct2 14y ago

Why the mention of Google Voice? I've never had an issue using Google Voice w/ Verizon, all the way back to Droid OG days.

richardjordan 14y ago
I moved to Verizon on my birthday on the 8th of this month. Finally ditched T-mobile to get an iPhone. I have been using Google Voice as my sole number for years now. It's very important to me. I even explained this when buying. Turns out that unannounced Verizon has started blocking Google Voice verifying your number do I cannot use it. At first I thought it was a blip but lots of Googling has discovered this appears to be a change as it's hitting everyone. If anyone can show me a fix and where I'm wrong I will happily stand corrected. But to this date every attempt to get my phone added to Google Voice has failed and blocking appears to be going on. I would not be surprised if existing iPhone Google Voice users are fine if they've already verified their number. I have no idea.
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  On one hand I want to try. On the other hand I'll be furious if VZW actively attempts to keep me from having that functionality. Why would they care?
  - richardjordan 14y ago
    I've been trying to fathom that myself. It could be Apple pressure; it could be their intention to bring out a competing service; it could be they feel this competes with an existing service. It may just be a way to push more people into porting numbers in some misguided attempt at raising the hassle factor of leaving Vz in the future. Whatever the reasoning I think it's short sighted and I find it very frustrating.
  - richardjordan 14y ago
    For completeness after a month of trying it's now verifying - so maybe it was a blip, maybe they tried something and thought better of it.
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  > Turns out that unannounced Verizon has started blocking Google Voice verifying your number do I cannot use it. How exactly do they block it? According to the verification instructions[0], Google Voice calls you and asks you to enter a verification code. How can this be blocked? It would be like any other DTMF service. Also, isn't it illegal to block this? 0: http://support.google.com/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=144586 http://support.google.com/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answ...
  - richardjordan 14y ago
    Oh, I know how it works :-) ...it just doesn't any more. I don't know of any legality blocking such a call but I can assure you no matter how many times I trigger the verification process I get nothing but an error message and no call or text from Mr Google.
    - 14y ago