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Google Voice users, this is the day you have been waiting for. Google Voice can now send native MMS to all major carriers in the US and Canada. No workarounds, no emails, no short URLs. Photos appear inline like you would expect from any carrier number. Support for group messaging via MMS will be enabled in a future update.
For a long time there was no way to send or receive MMS with a Google Voice number, but that changed last month. In early October it became possible to send photos to non-GV users, but they would get a link to the photo instead of seeing it in the message, and it didn’t work at all for Verizon users. Now everything is working as you would expect. All major carriers in the US and Canada can receive inline MMS from Google Voice users. Rejoice!
Do you still use Google Voice?
[via Google+]
Yep. 1 number to rule them all
Not to mention Hangouts VOIP calling, incoming and outgoing.
Not to forget the ability to block numbers via the website amongst other abilities
Good Job Google and thanks Verizon for finally getting this done…
I can’t wait for group message support. Hopefully it comes before March… as it would be their 6 year anniversary. It will finally work as a real cellphone number.
Hopefully it comes before March 2020
There. FTFY. :)
Can I receive mms from verizon then?
The problem wasn’t sending to Verizon customers, but receiving from. That should be rectified now.
Could this mean that GV might eventually be coming to Canada?
so this means if i go directly on the G-Voice app i have on my m8 i can send picture messages and see them? or this only works after integrating with Hangouts
I’m pretty sure you have to use Hangouts.
i really wished they didnt force hangouts down my throat and expanded on the google voice app by itself..but hey cant get what you want all the time
I used with my 3rd party messaging app, but you have to send to the alt # that GV uses not the actual # you’re trying to message.
What app, and how do you find the alternate number?
I thought this happened if you merged GV to Hangouts. Maybe I can separate them now.
It didn’t work right, always. It used to send an SMS with a link. Now it just sends an MMS (so you see the picture inline).
Mine is still sending a URL…
Lovely!! Now I can take the time to learn the number and start giving out my Google Voice number to people.
Awesome that it works… But if I’m using the hangouts apps Im good? I user Google vibe but not the gv app.
Why would you use mms instead of a app like whatsapp or kik?
I don’t see much difference. Why would you use WhatsApp or Kik over MMS?
Why not just use a hangouts chat? One good reason to stick with MMS is most people already use MMS and don’t need to download anything extra to make it work
I don’t know a single person that is using mms everyone I know uses whatsapp.
I don’t know anyone, aside my dad that uses whatsapp and I can still send him an MMS because his phone was born with it.
Really? in the Netherlands there are 9,5 million active users thats more then 50% of the population.
What do you use for group conversations?
Hangouts or MMS. That is why so many people want group chat enabled in Google Voice now that it has MMS. Whatsapp has had better adoption in countries where SMS/MMS is expensive compared to data. Most mobile users in the US have unlimited text plans. I suspect that the feature that tells people when a msg ha been read isn’t enjoyed here. In the US a lot of people like to ignore texts until they feel like answering them. It takes away their ability to lie.
That would explain it sms used to be expensive and unlimited texting wasn’t even a option till about 2 years ago. But the introduced it to late everyone already jumped ship to whatsapp since the first year is free and after that you have to pay about 1$ a year.
Not everyone uses whatsapp or kik
People like my friends who don’t want to share their info with Zuckerberg.
Does group messaging still not work?
This is what I’m actually waiting for.
I fully switched over to Google Voice last month, mostly because I couldn’t justify paying for phone service while unemployed when 95% of the time I’m on or near Wi-Fi. I had been using it for a while as voicemail, now it’s everything. MMS wasn’t a big issue for me since everyone I talk with switched to Hangouts a while ago. This is icing on the cake.
always and only
I’ve been using Google Voice exclusively since 2010. This is wonderful news! Now lets get group and video messaging to go and we will be all set!
Huzzah! GV is still my primary number and texting platform.
For me as well
Same here, been dealing with the shortcomings for years but the over data options, computer integration and ability to set some rules around numbers to nix telemarketers is great.
You should add “to all major carriers in the US and Canada”, in the title!
Hangouts dialer and texting apps are garbage compared to the 3rd party GV APK choices we used to get.
Whatsapp is $1 per year. Not that it’s expensive, but why pay when Google has it built in for free?
Awesome work Bandwidth.com and related VoIP dependents (Google voice, Republic Wireless, etc)! :)