Using Google Voice on /e/

/e/OS Devices Motorola
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I just installed /e/ from a nandroid backup I made back in October of this year. For some reason the radios didn’t seem to work in the most recent November release for a Moto G4 Athene. But I think everything was working a month ago…however I didn’t try bluetooth yet and the camera flash isn’t in sync with the shutter.

My concern had to do with the available apps. The apps that I’ve gotten used to over the years from the Google Play store seem to put a drain on my 3+ year old phone with 2 GB of RAM and I’m hoping /e/ will solve that problem as my phone previously would just shut down with no laggy warning.

One of the apps that I have to have is Google Voice. Why? Because years ago I dropped my landline and went with a Google Voice phone # which is now my home phone # and cell #. In the /e/ app store Google Voice seems to exist when u do a search but it won’t install. What I did was side load the Google Voice app which another app called apk extractor made for me before I restored my /e/ backup. I’ve had problems side loading other apps but the Google Voice app works this way for now. They update this app a lot so I’ll probably have to do this again in 2 weeks if it’s not working in the /e/ app store.

I’m not sure that any other app can work with Google Voice, so maybe this will help somebody!

Marty

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As a sidenote, if you change to a new phone provider, you can bring your number with you. At least it did work for me and there are even hints in the google help for transfering your personal number (unlocking costs 3 US$, your new service would care about the porting).
It’s just not a good idea to use any google service, especially not on /e/.

1 Like
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That’s good to remember. I don’t like to talk much on my phone but would need unlimited texts.

Marty

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I just uninstalled the Google Voice app and I can still use the unlimited free voice and unlimited free texting on my e phone. I am using a Tracfone SIM card in their BYOP program-$20 gives 3 months of talk/text/data. The amount is very limited but I went to Googles site from my computer and linked my Google voice # to my Tracfone phone #. Now my phone still rings when somebody calls the Google Voice phone # and I can go to the Google Voice # in my phone from my Brave web browser to read and write texts.

Marty