Nrbelex

Like some of those in the Nexus 5 thread, I'm also now finding the delay between dialing and the call going through is largely now gone. Has Google finally fixed an old bug, or is this a sign that Google is beginning the Voice refresh we've all been expecting for a while... Some related reading: Google plans to kill Google Voice in coming months, integrate features into Hangouts APK Teardown: Hangouts 2.1 Hides Hints Of Google Voice, SMS/MMS Backup, And More

To be clear, I can still receive and send group texts, but they bypass Voice.

See below... This is my experience as well. Emoji support is pretty spotty/broken, I agree, but I rarely use them, so I don't really care. With the integrated Sprint/GV service, I've never had to re-enable GV when upgrading, unless you mean activating it in the app on the phone, which shouldn't be a surprise. Another point I forgot to mention - Voice doesn't really handle group SMS/MMS properly yet.

I've had Sprint/GV integration since it was offered. It's been pretty great. Minor downsides: Once in a blue moon I hear calls coming in to Gmail, but my phone never rings. Could be Voice, or could be the network. Placing calls also sometimes takes a few extra seconds to go through, but it's not a huge issue for me. The Voice app (and website) aren't great - voicemail doesn't always download to the device quickly or properly, and the transcriptions are usually humorous - but on balance, the convenience is still easily worth it. Hoping they integrate it well with Hangouts without mangling the best features.

Coincidentally, Ars just ran a feature on Li-ion care.

Was 4.4.2 pulled when it rolled out? Why?

Pretty much every and all services offered by Sprint, including Easy Pay, make you agree to those terms of service, which say, among other things, [Emphasis added] As an alternative, you could apparently take them to small claims court... So basically it will never even reach the point where they'd feel the need to settle rather than incur serious costs. Every company in America is doing this, following AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion. Today, the NYT even broke the story of General Mills, of all companies, attempting to do this just by joining their online communities. Again, I don't think this update issue is anything more than a minor inconvenience, but it's worth knowing what you've agreed to in the T&Cs.

Minor point, but you actually won't be able to file a class action (assuming you've signed/renewed a contract in the last couple of years) because there's a "MANDATORY ARBITRATION Provision and CLASS ACTION WAIVER PROVISION set forth in the Ts and Cs." Personally, I don't see what everyone is freaking out about - it's a relatively minor update, and Spark is only available in a handful of markets, but then again S4GRU does attract the ultra-diehards...

P.S. - Before complaints come in that the person saying that was just a random Reddit user, that comes from Dan Morrill at Google.

Just a reminder on how OTA updates get rolled out...

Read back a couple pages but didn't see anything - what's the status of the "January update"?

You can mark VMs as unread in GV. Long press the message in question and select mark as unread. The default (built-in) Kit Kat gallery app has a . Pretty much a full editing suite. Lots of cropping options, and resizing as well: Is your old phone still powered on? If so, on the old phone, in the dialer type *#*#72786#*#* to fully reset the profile. See if that does the trick. You may need your MSL.

Ah - that's probably the difference. Mine is a 16 purchased from Sprint as an upgrade.

Mine shows the Nexus 5. Might be a delay in them updating your account.

You could at least read a little bit further up on this very page...

There are a lot of under-the-hood changes not immediately obvious to users. The Ars article linked above is a pretty good run-down. Apparently the way applications are written will be different going forward. How apps load and run in the background also changed a bit, and 4.4 lays the groundwork for ART.

Hadn't realized that - definitely a design flaw I'd expect them to correct pretty quickly.

I expect it to be available to most phones which get 4.4 ROM and have access to developer settings. But I'm really hoping Google advances it far enough they can flip the switch for Nexus users in the next OS update. From what they've said, that sounds like their plan.

I've been using Google Voice for roughly 3 years - shortly after it launched. I've had minor issues which were quickly fixed (years ago), but I've never had any call quality issues ever. For me, the benefits - especially when seamlessly integrated with Sprint - are just awesome. A few I use: Text from anywhere - cell phone, desktop (via web), any other device with a GV app. Answer or place calls on desktop (via Gmail). Make any phone ring when you receive a call (e.g. a land-line at work). Voicemails automatically transcribed, can be listened to on the web, E-mailed, downloaded, etc. Spam filtering - blocks texts and calls from spammers. Miscellaneous little things - can set custom VM greetings, super cheap international calls. Again, there was no trade-off for these features - it's all free and there's no change in call quality, delay in calling or anything like that, at all. On a related topic, Hangouts is also awesome (and is gradually being merged with Google Voice). Everyone with a Gmail e-mail address (a Google account) already has Hangouts in Gmail - look to the left of the inbox. All Android phones will have Hangouts installed and active as the primary SMS app starting with 4.4, and most older Android phones have it as well since it has automatically replaced the Google Talk app. Hangouts does high quality video calling, makes group messaging super simple, and has read receipts, among other features. To each his own, but the issues people keep mentioning about these two services don't correspond with my experiences at all. P.S. - If you do try GV again, make sure your call settings are at their defaults or similar to this to avoid any delays or anything similar:

Of course - that's why I said he was trying to get as much battery life as possible. He was using the phone normally (see the screen on time), but as I mentioned, he switched to ART and installed Qualcomm's Snapdragon BatteryGuru app. So I'm not saying this is typical - I'm just saying it's possible. He gets 24 hours+ on average with this setup.

I'll just leave this here again since it's relevant again...

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SPINNING? PLEASE TELL ME IT STOPS.

The battery life really isn't nearly as bad as everyone says. I've been making it a full day with normal usage. A friend using his on AT&T was trying to squeeze every last drop of battery life out. He switched to ART and installed Qualcomm's Snapdragon BatteryGuru app. He made it 2 days and 5 hours (with 3 hours 45 minutes screen-on time) and he still had 5% of his battery. Here's a screenshot of his battery usage part of the way through:

They very well may...

And yet... Study finds Android users now switching to iPhones more than ever. For whatever that's worth.