This guest tutorial was written by John Freml.
While T-Mobile has offered a formal WiFi-calling solution to its customers for quite some time, Sprint has relied heavily on the Airave for those who have a weak signal at home. And while the Airave is a good solution for some, it requires extra equipment, only works in a single location, and often requires an additional monthly fee.
Fortunately, with GrooveIP and Sprint's recently announced integration with Google Voice, you can turn your HTC EVO into quite a capable WiFi-calling and texting device that you can use virtually anywhere in the world that you have a solid WiFi signal. Best of all: rooting is not required!
To get started, you will need to:
1. Sign up for a Google Voice account, if you don't have one already.
2. Once you are signed in to your Google Voice account, or during the registration process, be sure to enable Google Voice-Sprint integration. This should be an option after entering your Sprint number during the registration process. If you already have an account, just access your "Voice settings" and then click "change/port" next to your Sprint mobile number in the "Phones" tab and follow the on-screen instructions.
Integrating your Sprint and Google Voice accounts will allow you to use your Sprint number when making outbound calls or sending text messages through Google Voice, while still retaining full control over your mobile number. In other words, you get all the benefits of porting your number to Google Voice, without the hassle and headache of actually doing so. Best of all, if you already have Google Voice and you want to keep your old Google Voice number, Google will allow you to do so for a $20 fee. You can read more about integration here.
3. Once you have the Google Voice-Sprint integration enabled, download Google Voice from the Market and GrooveIP from either the Market or the Amazon Appstore. The Market currently has the app listed for $3.99, while it's on sale at Amazon for $1.99. The caveat is that updates are generally available quicker from the Market, so you'll have to decide which is more important to you: faster updates or more money in your bank account.
4. Once you have both apps installed, sign in to each of them using your same Google Voice username and password. (If you were already using the Google Voice app before enabling Google Voice-Sprint integration, you'll have to fully sign out and sign back in again.)
————————————
That's it! You can now make and receive phone calls to and from your Sprint number using GrooveIP over WiFi, and you can send and receive texts from your Sprint number using the Google Voice app, from anywhere in the world that has WiFi. You can even tweak GrooveIP's settings to allow you to use the app with your native phone dialer. To test this, you can put your phone in airplane mode, enable WiFi, and ensure you are signed in to both apps.
There are some things to keep in mind.
First, in order to properly receive phone calls over WiFi, you'll have to stay signed in to GrooveIP and make sure that you have Google Talk enabled in your Google Voice phone settings on the web. You'll also need to be signed out of Gmail chat on all other computers.
Second, call quality might not be as good as a normal cell connection, as many users of GrooveIP have reported echoes or delays. However, the developer has gained a reputation for being quick to respond to inquiries, and he frequently releases updates aimed at improving both call quality and the overall user experience.
Third, keep in mind that MMS won't work using this method, as the Google Voice app does not support this yet.
For many, however, the benefits make this method well worth the five minutes it takes to set up. You will now be able to continue using your phone with only a WiFi connection, without paying for an Airave or using other cumbersome or clunky VOIP solutions.
Best of all, you can take your EVO with you on vacation and keep in touch with friends and family, without worrying about a huge roaming bill when you get back. You can even use this method on any old, deactivated Android phone you have laying around the house to have a back-up, WiFi-only phone that is still connected to your current Sprint number.
If you try this out on your EVO, be sure to let us know in the comments how this is working out for you!
This guest tutorial was written by John Freml.
What are the best audio settings for the EVO 4G?
Mic and speaker gains?
do you have to integrate you sprint/voice number. I use 2 different numbers. My google voice number is considered my “home” phone, which i give out to creditors/businesses… and my cell number is for personal. Service is sporadic at my house and I would like to try this.
playing with this now. I worked at trying the free route to do this but finally gave up after the pbxes.org free server crashed repeatedly.
It works pretty well, lag is on par with cell tower lag. I note a bit of an echo dialing into it, but not a horrible one.
To be honest, I did not really tweak the settings much to get this up and running. Keep in mind that if the person you are speaking with on the other end complains about an echo, you may want to try a lower microphone gain — this just makes it less likely that your microphone will pick up sound coming from your speaker.
You can use this without integrating Sprint and Google Voice. However, you will only be able to make/receive calls and send/receive texts with your Google Voice number.
$64,000 question – does this use minutes if calling to landlines? I’m assuming so since it uses Google Voice as the proxy.
No. Because you are bypassing Sprint’s cell towers completely, this will not use any of your plan’s minutes. You will only be charged (by Google, not Sprint) for international calls.
that sounds perfect. Thanks!
FWIW, I have been using http://www.sipgate.com with no problems.
A few questions:
1. Does this mean I could call family in Venezuela from my phone via WiFi without being charged for Out-Of-Country calling?
2. Does this mean if I travel to Venezuela, I can call to the U.S. via WiFi and not be charged a cent or some outrageous price for the call?
Please answer this for me if you know.
What about when you are not connected to a WiFi network. Does the phone still work on the regular CDMA network?
Yes, this can theoretically work on 3G, too. However, call quality might not be as good as on WiFi.
1. Yes, you’ll pay international rates to Google, not Sprint (and Google is significantly cheaper).
2. Theoretically yes. I’ve not used this abroad myself, but the app developer reports that people are able to use this successfully around the world.
I got this mostly so I could take my old x-android phone and use it while I’m downing my EVO, any idea why the thing would work for a minute and then exit out after ~15 seconds?
May just be x-android is not quite capable… but sure would be nice if I could use this for something other than a paperweight
you can tell a difference, like the call’s processed more or something… not bad, just something you can notice if you listen.
Does anybody know what number shows up when you integrate with Google Voice and you use the call back service from Google?
Thanks for the great write-up. I found this app recently and tested it out on my old HTC HERO which is no longer on Sprint. You can leave it in Airplane mode and turn on WiFi only for great battery life. You don’t even need to have the Google Voice App, you can just have GrooVeIP only. Google Voice only gives you app access to settings, voicemails, SMS, which I don’t need.
One thing you need to know — to receive calls, a) your Google Voice settings *must* be set to ring incoming calls to Google Chat and b) you must have no other device with Google Talk signed in, I guess including Gmail Chat as mentioned.
A few interesting things about all this:
1. With your Sprint number enabled in Google Voice, you can use your Sprint “phone” for all types of calling, from your office desk or home line, from Gmail Chat over IP, of course from your Sprint phone. Now with this app, from Android over IP. One unifed number indeed. And keep all your SMS, call logs and Voicemail in your Google account. You can use your “Sprint” SMS from Google Voice or even Gamil directly. I’m feeling way ahead in the cloud game.
2. This brings us very close to the inevitable irrelevance of cell service. If we had wide 4G coverage (too bad Sprint/Clearwire are gonna fall behind here) and someone offering data-only service, who needs cellular? It is technically possible to connect an EVO to Clearwire for a $45 flat monthly fee. They won’t allow it however, I’m sure it would cause more problems with Sprint. I did read somewhere how to change your EVO’s setting with the MSL password to use Clear’s gateway instead of Sprint’s. Then how to trick Clear into accepting your WiMAX MAC ID as belonging to a laptop or modem. Or maybe if you’re boinking one or their service reps
3. Google could obviously provide a VOIP feature or app for Google Voice. I would bet the only thing holding them back is disapproval of the carriers who I guess rather put off the scenario in #2. What do y’all think?
You can choose. Google lets you either use your current Sprint number or your Google Voice number as the one that shows up. The chosen number shows up from your Sprint phone and from GV, for calls and text messages. The great thing is you keep both numbers no matter which one you choose. The “secondary” number can still receive calls and messages.
It’s about perfect!
Do you have to have the new gingerbread 2.3 update to be able to use this feature?
I believe GrooveIP can work on Android 2.1 and up.
So let me ask you this. Does your device even have to be a phone, or could you set this up with an Android wifi only tablet? And if so, how would that set up look?
Oh and I am thinking of the method that uses a google voice number that is NOT your Sprint phone number as well.
Thanks for the reply. Though, what I actually wanted to say, is let’s say you have no data connection through 3G or WiFi, you are just on the plain old cell network. This may be a noobish question, but can you still send and receive calls exactly like you do now when you are not integrated with GV?
It should work on a WiFi tablet. The app comes with it’s own dialer, so even devices with no phone interface can use it.
Yes…this works on Android tablet. Can make and receive calls on Asus Transformer.
So I managed to call and send text message with google voice when on Wifi. But how do I make it so I don’t have to use google voice to receive text messages anymore after I have wifi off and exited out of Groove IP. I don’t really want to sign out of google voice since I was using that for voice mail before but want to use my other way to text message.
I have received and placed phone calls with no 3g or wifi. I do not recall if I manually turned it off or not, but whatever I did was un-memorable
why is it that my phone can not be verified im stuck here.
I purchased the app and got it setup. Excellent value @ $1.99. Some thoughts:
- Using Sprint / Google Voice integration out-of-the box worked great. No need to tweak settings in GV. The only thing to watch out for is if you are logged into Google Chat anywhere else, (gmail, talk, etc.) it will ring in that location as well. No big deal.
- Works great with Google two-stage authentication. I gave it’s own password in my google account settings and it works flawlessly.
- The price on Amazon app store has gone back up to $3.99. Buy from Android Marketplace, as the updates seem to be quicker there.
In terms of call quality, there is an echo and quite a bit of feedback. Can anyone share ideal application settings for call quality?
Thanks to this site and author for making me aware of this app.
There are ways to get Wifi calling without having to Pay for the GrooveIP app, but it seems that you’re paying for the convenience of having less hurdles to jump through in order to get it set-up.
It’s also worth noting (to some people) that GoogleVoice does NOT allow MMS through its service – that means no “picture text”. You won’t get any notification of any sort if someone tries to send you one (and you can’t send any either).
Works great except no call waiting. Is there anyway to fix this?
This works well. Also looks like Google has limited MMS support now by enabling email forwarding of SMS messages.
If you wanted to turn off your cell service and just use your EVO as a WiFi phone.. could this be done? I’m paying some where around $160.00 for two phones and data plans. Seems silly to keep paying that money for the service each month when I don’t really talk to that many people anyway. Everyone has my Google Voice number anyway. Any thoughts?
Does this work on an HTC EVO View Tablet?
Have an EVO on Sprint with Tootle voice. Set this up and it works great! Thanks!
set it up it works great to call out of the US but i cant get any incoming calls when on wifi.