This week: I purchase a Nexus and upon setting up Google Voice (like I had done a few times before) I find to my dismay that it completely overtakes my phone.  Meaning all calls and text/sms messages are now being sent from my Google Voice number.

Being that the phone is a week old on Sprint I couldn’t find a straight answer to my problem of being able to toggle Google voice on/off and at the very least send text messages from my Sprint number.

After logging in to my Google Voice account settings I found that the deep Sprint / Google Voice integration had been enabled during the setup process of the GV mobile app.  Granted this might be what most people want to happen, but I did not.  I disabled the integration from the GV website and signed out on the GV app on my phone.  This finall allowed me to make calls and send SMS/MMS from my Sprint number.  Now at least I was back to ground level.

But this didn’t solve my problem of having the OPTION of making calls via Google Voice.

So I stumbled upon something iteresting…
I went to the Android Market (on my phone) and found that the Google Voice app had the option to “install”.  Funny, wasn’t Google Voice already installed on my phone (yes)?  I went into my phone’s settings and found that there was no option to remove the current Google Voice app so I began to connect the dots The Voice app that ships with the Sprint Nexus S 4G must be made especially for the partnership between Sprint and Google (voice).

SOLUTION!!

I decided to take a chance and install the Google Voice app found in the Android Market.  (When I say “chance” I mean only in the sense that I could end up bonking up the current Voice integration or end up with two versions of the Voice app on my phone).  Upon installation I ran the newly installed Market version of Voice and I got the familiar setup dialog asking me how I wanted to make calls.  Among these options was the option I was searching for: “ask every time I make a call”.

Now my phone is set up as it was when I was using my EVO.

• All text/SMS/MMS are being sent from my Sprint number (note of course that I can still send SMS via the Google Voice app if I want to go that route).
• All calls begin with a prompt “Call with Google Voice” OR “Call without Google Voice” so I can choose how I appear to callers.

For those who may be wondering why this was an issue with me to begin with.  I tend to give my numbers out selectively.  Family and friends have my carrier number while business clients / co-workers have my Google Voice number and I like to be able to call as one of those two identities on a call-by-call basis.  I know that GV has the option of grouping and blacklisting (spam) callers but I’m not ready to all my eggs in the Google basket at this point.

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Thanks: Adam

The making of:

via:  boygeniusreport

‘JCB’ Song by Mizlopi.
HT Vince