[...] Originally Posted by loudrims_inc hmm…i think i might try this out…another Q: How do i go about using this app as my primary txt method? eg. I want to send and recv txt via this app only and not ATT. When you get the app, you can pick your own username@textnow.me address. If your friends put that address in their address books, they can text to it and you receive it for free. When you send messages using the app, the replies automatically come back for free. If you have a Google Voice account, we also support using Textnow with your Google Voice number. More about it here: How to Streamline Your Google Voice SMS on Your iPhone Using Textnow at Enflick Blog [...]

I am confused. Does this mean that any text sent to my mobile phone number will be forwarded to textnow? And how do replies work? Thanks.

If you do this, all texts sent to your Google Voice number will be forwarded to Textnow and texts you send will come from your Google Voice number.

Hmmm… it won’t let me change my forward SMS email address from my principal one… any idea why?

Try enabling voicemail notifications and switch the address on the drop down next to it to your @textnow.me address.

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by enflick: Integrate Google Voice SMS on your #iphone using Textnow: http://blog.enflick.com/?p=3...

This rocks!!! You guys are awesome. Now I can have the power of Google Voice with the convenienence of Textnow. Just bought the app

I currently have the older u-sms application. When I upgrade to textnow will I still be able to use my existing myusms email account or am I going to be forced to use a textnow email address?

The old myusms.net email will still work with the new version.
(both @textnow.me and @myusms.net will work)

The latest version of the app (3.2) is required for GV integration to work.

[...] Voice number. It was rather simple to setup Google Voice to forward to our TextNow address, see here for [...]

Kinda off topic but is there anyway to increase font size for the sms text box. I find the current size when texting too small.

All the best,
Karl

Currently, there is no way to do so. However, our next update for Textnow will address that.

Thanks for sharing your concern with us.

Which browser do we type the google verification link? I tried it in both browsers on PC and iPhone and they both expired…any ideas?

EDIT: Do not use Chrome. It will not allow you to verify. Use FireFox and type the verification link. This is how I just did it.

What if I send a text to someone who I didn’t received a text from initially. They will see my textnow email address as incoming instead of my Google Voice number. Is there a way to prevent that since the whole point of Google Voice is to have a unified number.

@Pascal If someone hasn’t texted to your Google Voice number before and you initiate a text from Textnow, it will show up as your textnow.me address instead of your GV number. Currently, there isn’t a way around that unless we screen scrape Google Voice’s web interface. We can try looking into doing so for future versions.

Derek,
Thanks for all the work you have put in to get GV integration working. I use it now exclusively for texting.

The only real issue that I have is the Caller ID. I have initiated a GV chat via the GV web interface and my friends are texting my GV # but when their messages show up Textnow is displaying their phone number and not their name. ( instead of ‘John Doe’ I’m getting 2438654304 )

It doesn’t seem to matter if it is a first text or a reply to mine.

Is there any fix for this?

Also, is there a way to text multiple contacts at once?

Again, thanks for all the work – love the app!
G

Hi Glenn,

You can fix the problem by adding their phone number in your Address Book. Textnow looks up the number in the Address Book to get the name of the person. If you already have the number added in the Address Book, make sure it is using one of the default labels, not a custom label.

Derek

hi, i just get textnow and integrated with my google voice, but when i try to send test sms to my google voice number, i also get a copy send to my iphone sms, can anyone tell me how to edit so i can only get sms reply to my textnow only, i don’t want my iphone sms gets google voice sms, thanks…

Login to Google Voice, go to Settings, Phones, and press Edit for your iPhone number. In that screen, uncheck “Receive SMS on this phone” and hit save.

Is there a way to integrate with Google Voice that doesn’t disable the normal email functionality of Google Voice?

It seems if I set this up then I’ll no longer get emails containing a transcript & playable sound file of regular voice mails.

In the next version, we will allow an option to forward your @textnow.me messages/texts to an email. From there you can set filters and maintain the same email functionality of Google Voice.

Is there anyway to “unlink” a contact so that the default textnow address shows instead of the GV#? A few contacts are having trouble opening texts from my Google Voice number.

This is really most excellent. I take it that if I simply use textnow to respond to an SMS conversation initiated by someone else to my Google Voice number, then that person’s number will also be recognized as a Google Voice contact, right? There’s no need for me to initiate a conversation with that person through the web interface?

@Chris

Yup, that is correct.

[...] We now support Google Voice integration. Check out our tutorial/guide here: http://blog.enflick.com/?p=3 [...]

[...] We now support Google Voice integration. Check out our tutorial/guide here: http://blog.enflick.com/?p=3 [...]

[...] We now support Google Voice integration. Check out our tutorial/guide here: http://blog.enflick.com/?p=3 [...]

do u have to have a google voice account for this txt free app to work propely

and if soo how do u set up an account

I tried using textnow with GV integration chatting with a friend yesterday for an hour and I was disappointed with the the program. It works fine at the beginning but then I noticed the delay in receiving messages as well as several times I have to restart the program because my messages won’t send. I switched over to GV mobile and it works perfectly. Also there were missed messages that I didn’t get on Textnow but do get on GV mobile. Only disadvantage with GV mobile is there is no push so you don’t get reply messages automatically. For now, I’m using prowl for notification of new messages and GV mobile to txt friends until there is an update of textnow.

I do have to say if these problems are ironed out, it would be a perfect sms program with GV integration.

We had some server load issues yesterday that were causing the delay.

Most of the load issues are ironed out now. We will continue to monitor the server to make sure this does not continue to become a problem.

I’ve got another question mate. Sorry for being so annoying. After reading Step 4 I’m confused…If someone that you haven’t texted with Google Voice’s web interface texts your GV number, do you not get the text? Or does it just appear as Google Voice’s number or something???

I followed your instructions and made sure to uncheck the box for forwarding sms to my cell phone yet I continue to receive messages to both. I double-checked my settings and the box is still unchecked. I’m not sure why they are still being sent to my phone……
Also my contacts messaged me before I could initiate it through the GV website so I have no names attached to the numbers, anyway to fix this? I love this feature and no other app can offer it, would love to have it work properly!

does this work on the ipod touch ??

Yes, it works on the iPod Touch.

I have the same problem as Leon. My messages are still showing up on my cell phone even with the forwarding to cell phone box unchecked. Also same question regarding name association for someone who sends me a message before I initiate one to them through the GV website.

Great app. Nice work.

Thanks guys is working for me now.
I just followed step by step on top and its working smoothly fine…
very good job
later gonna sleep now…

guys i forgot to mention that i was able to copy and paste that verification email that gv sent to textnow, just highlight everything then go to the bottom of the msg and you’ll see the ”copy” and then pasted to a new email and sent it to yourself. once recieved click and enter password and there u go done!!!

Ok, I got mine to work. There’s TWO places to uncheck that box; the first is the one displayed above under “Voicemail and SMS”. Where he said to disable SMS forwarding is actually under the first tab “Phones”. Works awesome, but I’m still having some buggyness with the contacts, ended up having to add new contacts through the app, so now I have duplicates.

Thanks I have the texting working now as well.

Could we use this for Step #4?
http://www.contactexter.com/getFile.php

Also, I’ve got an idea for you guy. When you get a text message from Google Voice with your voicemail, it would be amazing! If that’s not possible, it would rock if you could add a link that will call your google voice. If that’s not possible it’s fine, but it would of course be amazing.

Actually, I think that’s not needed. If anyone else wants to use Google Voice with textnow, and wants everyone to only use 1 number to call and text, but still wants to use iPhone voicemail here’s what you do:
Turn of call presentation. This should work.

[...] You’re going to need a Google Voice account, TextNow and a @textnow.me adress. Then just set up Google Voice to forward you your texts on email and you’re pretty much set. Derek from Enflick posted a step by step tutorial if you need more details. [...]

[...] You’re going to need a Google Voice account, TextNow and a @textnow.me adress. Then just set up Google Voice to forward you your texts on email and you’re pretty much set. Derek from Enflick posted a step by step tutorial if you need more details. [...]

How about the ability to use custom contact number labels? I have one that is called “Google Voice,” for example. I really need to be able to see my custom entries … please?

when i click on the link to verify my request to change my google email to my textnow address the link comes up invalid even when i cut and past it

TextNow – Free Texting on iPhone with Google Voice Integration…

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Description: To catch your attention, this is a must have app.  I’ve been using T…

[...] You’re going to need a Google Voice account, TextNow and a @textnow.me adress. Then just set up Google Voice to forward you your texts on email and you’re pretty much set. Derek from Enflick posted a step by step tutorial if you need more details. [...]

Hi! Thanks for this awesome guide! I still want my voicemail and text notifications to go to my email so that I can respond directly from there if my iPhone dies. However, I was wondering if this same effect could be achieved by setting up a filter in GMail for “txt.voice.google.com OR voice-noreply@google.com” and then forwarding it to the TextNow email address provided. Has anyone tried this?

Hi Tushar,

You can setup redirection to e-mail in the app. Go to Options > Advances > E-mail Forwarding and put in your GMail address there.

From GMail, you can setup a filter to sort messages you want to see from TextNow.

Derek

Hi, I am wondering if we can use that thing “Turbo” suggested for step 4. That would make things so much easier!

Hi Derek,

Thanks for your reply! I want to still be able to reply to SMS from my email. Will this be possible if I use the forwarding feature within the app? Also, does this feature require that the messages reach my phone first? ex. if my phone is off, I won’t get the push notification, but will I still get the email?

If not, could you set it up so that TextNow could accept forwarded messages from GMail with the filter method that I mentioned before? Or, alternatively, it would also be cool if TextNow was an option wtihin Prowl…

Thanks!

Tushar

Derek, I am back in the US right now and want to send text to China (and when I am there I want to send as well). I was wondering whether you had done further work on the support for:

1) sending text to China via GV where phone number +86 186 XXXX YYYY numbers can be passed.

2) Support for chinese characters.

Hey derek you’re my hero!!! XD thanks so much for explaining all this man! now my friends that cant text to email can text me!! XD know that you did me alot a help there buddy

Hi Derek,
I am getting the frequent message of “cannot connect to server” almost every other text now and it seems to be extremely laggy? Any reason for this? Native SMS app is a lot smoother. Is there away to fine tune this and make it smoother? Thanks.

Hey Derek,
Its Derek. (haha same name) Hey I am trying to send messages to my friends, (on there cells) and sometimes it will be sent and sometimes it won’t. And when they try and reply i don’t get it? And if my ipod touch isnt on then i don’t get the text till i turn it on? Can you please please help me! Thanks soooooooo much!

This is AWESOME! This feature allows the textnow application to have a phone number associated with it. This allows friends to text a phone number and you will get it in your textnow application. This is especially great for me as texts on their end will be in ONE stream of texts instead of being sent all individually as random phone numbers. So all texts from me can be deleted at once instead of one by one.

The only problem I ran into is joining Google Voice as it is invitation only at the moment. I had to have a friend at Google invite me.

I like using my Apple Me.com email with push for my voicemail transcripts. This messes that up.

Go to Options > Advanced > Email Forwarding

from there you can forward all your TextNow messages to your me.com e-mail.

Hey Derek,
I commented above under “Leon” but now had to register to be able to comment for some reason. I am still having major issues with my contacts; pretty much only if my contact had a standard “mobile” or “office” label was it recognized as a saved number. I send from my contacts on GV then once they reply it shows as an unsaved number. It’s a small yet VERY annoying hiccup because the majority of my contacts have custom labels like “iphone”.
Next issue; I’m guessing you guys had quite a network surge during the holidays because this app flat out didn’t work! If I ever even received a text it would be several hours later!! Anywho, I’m sure you guys are addressing that issue with the tons of new purchases made in Dec that brought you up to the Top 25 in iTunes.
New issues (as of 2 Jan, 2010); I thought my address book problems were bad before, then today came along and crapped on all that, lol. I open the app today and all of a sudden 99% of my conversations lost their contact pics!!! what the hell!? The only ones with pics, for some reason, had a DIFFERENT pic from the address book, it instead synced with Facebook I believe. But for some reason it didn’t sync all of them…..so now, aside from the network reliability issues I now have completely discombobulated contact photos. How on earth am I supposed to fix that?????

[...] resorting to email or the mobile website. Plus you have a real phone number. Take that Apple! How to Streamline Your Google Voice SMS on Your iPhone Using Textnow at Enflick Blog [...]

I cannot seem to get a verification email from my google voice. I’ve resent verification email many many times but still have not receive it. Please help.

Never mind, I got it working. Thanks.

I use Google sync for my contacts, so ALL contacts are Google Voice contacts. Is there a way to have TextNow use Google Voice for all contacts no matter what? Would that solve the step 4 issue for those of us with all our contacts Google-ized?

[...] http://blog.enflick.com/?p=3 [...]

How come my signature doesn’t show when i text someone

[...] one number which is only possable using Google Voice. I used the following to set it up correctly: How to Streamline Your Google Voice SMS on Your iPhone Using Textnow at Enflick Blog The only thing I'm missing now is being able to MMS through Google Voice. I entered a request for [...]

Awesome article! This step #4 seems to be no longer accurate, or is there an alternative way of doing it, and if so, how?

4. Initiate first Google Voice texts with your buddies

For Textnow to recognize your contacts as Google Voice contacts, you have to send the first Google Voice text to them from Google Voice’s web interface. Afterwards, their replies will go to Textnow. After that point, all texts you send to that contact with Textnow will go through Google Voice instead of the default Textnow SMS gateway. All future texts you initiate to those numbers will also go through Google Voice instead of the default Textnow SMS gateway.

I am still confused about Step #4. Is this a requirement that starts after starting to forward to my textnow.me address, or since getting my Google Voice number? So if I have been using Google Voice to do ALL of my SMS for months and months, do I then have to send all of my contacts a new SMS after starting to use textnow, or are they ok since they have already been spoken to by the web client?

If I do need to send to them again, can you please explain how textnow knows that I have sent an SMS to these contacts via the google voice web client? It would seem to me that google voice would handle that SMS without sending anything to textnow.

The push notification for some of my contacts show only the number. Can I correct this if I didn’t follow step 4 for some contacts? If correctable how do I?

I followed all the steps. However, when text back from TextNow on my iphone, the other party sees the sms as coming from my TextNow number, NOT my GV number! How can I resolve that?

It would also be nice if all SMS from TextNow can show as coming from GV number! Is that possible?

With the newest update, I’ve added some tweaks to the tutorial.

If you want to keep using your Google Voice number for your outgoing text messages instead of the TextNow phone number, you must release your TextNow phone number. There is no way to send text messages with both phone numbers. You must pick one or the other.