How to Streamline Your Google Voice SMS on Your iPhone Using Textnow
We have recently made some changes to our server backend to streamline the use of Google Voice with TextNow.
Using these exact steps will let you text your friends using your Google Voice number and account within the Textnow iPhone application.
1. Get Textnow Unlimited in the App Store
If you haven’t already done so, download the TextNow application in the App Store. It is in the Social Networking section. There is also a free version called TextNow Lite if you want to try it for free.
2. Add your @textnow.me address to your Google Account
If you haven’t already picked your own @textnow.me address, do so by opening Textnow, go to Options > Texting Address and select your @textnow.me address.
To add your @textnow.me address to your Google Account, login to Google Voice, go to Settings > Voicemail & SMS, and click on “Add a new email address”.
Put in your username@textnow.me address in the text box and hit save. After doing so, you will receive the verification email from Google in the Textnow application.
To verify your @textnow.me address with your Google Account, you will have to type the verification URL into your browser. (Make sure you do it on the same machine you added your @textnow.me address)
3. Forward SMS messages to your @textnow.me address
Now, you have to forward all your Google Voice SMS messages to your @textnow.me address. To do so, login to your Google Voice account, go to Settings > Voicemail & SMS, and check the checkbox next to “Forward SMS messages to my email:”. Make sure next to it is your @textnow.me address, not your primary Google Account address. To change it, select the @textnow.me address in the drop down next to “Email the message to:” under “Voicemail Notifications”.
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.
5. Disable forwarding of SMS to your AT&T number
Go to your Google Voice Settings, then go to “Phones” and edit your AT&T phone number.
After that, disable “Receive SMS” for your AT&T mobile phone number.
If you have any issues setting up Google Voice with your Textnow app, shoot me an email at derek (at) enflick dot com or text me at my Google Voice number (858) 598-4237.
Happy Texting ! 
70 Responses to 'How to Streamline Your Google Voice SMS on Your iPhone Using Textnow'
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[...] 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 [...]
Textnow Unlimited v3.2 approved: Send unlimited free texts on your iTouch or iPhone - Page 2 - The iPhone Blog Forums
23 Oct 09 at 12:44 am
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.
Alejandro
23 Oct 09 at 4:03 pm
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.
Derek
23 Oct 09 at 5:37 pm
Hmmm… it won’t let me change my forward SMS email address from my principal one… any idea why?
Alejandro
23 Oct 09 at 6:37 pm
Try enabling voicemail notifications and switch the address on the drop down next to it to your @textnow.me address.
Derek
23 Oct 09 at 6:42 pm
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...
uberVU - social comments
24 Oct 09 at 4:16 pm
This rocks!!! You guys are awesome. Now I can have the power of Google Voice with the convenienence of Textnow. Just bought the app
SpinningChoke
25 Oct 09 at 9:35 am
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?
Karl
27 Oct 09 at 6:05 am
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.
Derek
27 Oct 09 at 3:30 pm
[...] Voice number. It was rather simple to setup Google Voice to forward to our TextNow address, see here for [...]
Free SMS App Showdown – The iPod Touch POV « AppAddict.net : Feed The Addction
27 Oct 09 at 5:57 pm
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
Karl
27 Oct 09 at 10:15 pm
Currently, there is no way to do so. However, our next update for Textnow will address that.
Thanks for sharing your concern with us.
Derek
27 Oct 09 at 10:16 pm
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?
Reza
1 Nov 09 at 7:11 pm
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.
Reza
1 Nov 09 at 7:14 pm
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
2 Nov 09 at 3:00 am
@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
2 Nov 09 at 5:18 pm
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
Glenn
5 Nov 09 at 3:25 pm
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
Derek
5 Nov 09 at 4:18 pm
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…
SW
8 Nov 09 at 11:05 am
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.
Derek
10 Nov 09 at 8:16 pm
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.
Scott
14 Nov 09 at 9:15 pm
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.
Derek
16 Nov 09 at 4:38 pm
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.
Jaime
20 Nov 09 at 12:52 am
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 Johnson
20 Nov 09 at 4:08 pm
@Chris
Yup, that is correct.
Derek
20 Nov 09 at 4:10 pm
[...] We now support Google Voice integration. Check out our tutorial/guide here: http://blog.enflick.com/?p=3 [...]
Get unlimited free texting with your iPhone or iPod Touch with 1 purchase | Web Site Hosting
20 Nov 09 at 10:05 pm
[...] We now support Google Voice integration. Check out our tutorial/guide here: http://blog.enflick.com/?p=3 [...]
Get unlimited free texting with your iPhone or iPod Touch with 1 purchase | WebHostingDirectory
20 Nov 09 at 11:00 pm
[...] We now support Google Voice integration. Check out our tutorial/guide here: http://blog.enflick.com/?p=3 [...]
Get unlimited free texting with your iPhone or iPod Touch with 1 purchase - Hosting Blog
20 Nov 09 at 11:00 pm
do u have to have a google voice account for this txt free app to work propely
jakkob
30 Nov 09 at 3:12 am
and if soo how do u set up an account
jakkob
30 Nov 09 at 3:15 am
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.
Cain
1 Dec 09 at 7:22 pm
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.
Derek
1 Dec 09 at 7:26 pm
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???
Turbo
14 Dec 09 at 1:04 am
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!
Leon
16 Dec 09 at 5:49 pm
does this work on the ipod touch ??
facu
17 Dec 09 at 12:51 am
Yes, it works on the iPod Touch.
Derek Ting
17 Dec 09 at 12:55 am
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.
msl
17 Dec 09 at 2:07 am
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…
Marvin
17 Dec 09 at 11:11 am
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!!!
Marvin
17 Dec 09 at 11:26 am
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.
Leon
17 Dec 09 at 6:29 pm
Thanks I have the texting working now as well.
msl
17 Dec 09 at 8:40 pm
Could we use this for Step #4?
http://www.contactexter.com/getFile.php
Turbo
17 Dec 09 at 11:21 pm
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.
Turbo
17 Dec 09 at 11:47 pm
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.
Turbo
18 Dec 09 at 12:34 am
[...] 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. [...]
TextNow Lets You Text From Google Voice With Push Notifications + We Have 10 Promo Codes For You! | TEST ZONE
19 Dec 09 at 11:49 am
[...] 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. [...]
iPhone Central » Blog Archive » TextNow Lets You Text From Google Voice With Push Notifications + We Have 10 Promo Codes For You!
19 Dec 09 at 3:09 pm
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?
Stacey Schwingle
19 Dec 09 at 5:57 pm
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
nonna
20 Dec 09 at 4:50 pm
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Appicted
21 Dec 09 at 12:48 am
[...] 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. [...]
TextNow Lets You Text From Google Voice With Push Notifications + We Have 10 Promo Codes For You! « : App Advice
21 Dec 09 at 3:47 pm
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?
Tushar Khandelwal
21 Dec 09 at 4:36 pm
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
Derek
21 Dec 09 at 4:39 pm
Hi, I am wondering if we can use that thing “Turbo” suggested for step 4. That would make things so much easier!
kenzdel
21 Dec 09 at 5:38 pm
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
Tushar Khandelwal
22 Dec 09 at 2:53 pm
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.
radiodialer
24 Dec 09 at 10:49 am
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
Michael Swann
26 Dec 09 at 4:30 am
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.
Jack
26 Dec 09 at 8:11 pm
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!
Derek
28 Dec 09 at 1:32 am
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.
Jeremy
28 Dec 09 at 6:14 pm
I like using my Apple Me.com email with push for my voicemail transcripts. This messes that up.
Craig
29 Dec 09 at 7:21 pm
Go to Options > Advanced > Email Forwarding
from there you can forward all your TextNow messages to your me.com e-mail.
Derek
29 Dec 09 at 7:23 pm
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?????
leonphoto
3 Jan 10 at 2:10 am
[...] 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 [...]
The iPhone & iTouch Applications Thread - Page 48 - StrafeRight Forums
21 Jan 10 at 4:18 pm
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.
chantale
25 Jan 10 at 6:46 am
Never mind, I got it working. Thanks.
chantale
25 Jan 10 at 7:16 am
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?
hg
25 Jan 10 at 7:39 pm
[...] http://blog.enflick.com/?p=3 [...]
How to Streamline Google Voice SMS on an Iphone using textnow « Geekytechstuff's Blog
14 Feb 10 at 11:26 pm
How come my signature doesn’t show when i text someone
GreennGoblinn
5 Jun 10 at 5:55 am
[...] 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 [...]
Do you text? Need text app! - TiPb iPhone, iPad, iPod Forums
1 Jul 10 at 6:31 pm
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.
Brad
8 Jul 10 at 11:35 pm