Long shot: Can BI server send SMS alerts to Google Voice?

erkme73

BIT Beta Team
Nov 9, 2014
1,570
1,486
I'm guessing no... But unless/until you ask...

I currently am using push notification and email. The former seems to work instantly, but sometimes does not queue alerts if I'm not in a coverage area. I like how fast Google Voice notifies on text messages, so to have it as a backup/redundant push service (which is not dependent on BI app) would be ideal.
 
I see that the camera settings 'Alerts' tab includes an action for making a phone call with a telephony modem.
 
Yeah, not quite what I'm after. I want BI alert to send an SMS message directly to my GV account. But, I think that's a limitation of GV, not BI. GV used to support sending texts via email, but apparently there is no such proxy anymore. And since BI uses email (to a carrier's CELLNUMBER@CELL_CARRIER.COM proxy), I'm thinking GV texts are probably not gonna happen.

Modems are a great idea... for 1986.
 
I found this so I'm not sure it will work but it's worth a try:

You can send a Gmail to your Google Number and have it appear as a GV SMS text message.

1) Go to GV settings > Voicemail & SMS tab : enable Forward SMS messages to my email (must be a Gmail address) > Save Send a text message from your mobile phone to your Google number.
2) Go to your gmail address that was in your settings above > open the gmail > click on Show Details > copy the long gmail address that ends in @txt.voice.google.com > add it to your Gmail contacts for yourself.
- You can either reply to this gmail message or send a new gmail to this odd looking address. However, You cannot send it from another email provider (e.g. yahoo) at this time. Note: When you reply or send gmail to your Google number, anything in the subject line will not appear in your GV sms text message, and a line in the body of the message cannot be broken with a new line space or by typing enter for a new paragraph.
3) Go to GV settings > Voicemail & SMS tab : enable Forward SMS messages to my email (must be a Gmail address) > Save
4) Send a text message from your mobile phone to your Google number.
5) Go to your gmail address that was in your settings above > open the gmail > click on Show Details > copy the long gmail address that ends in @txt.voice.google.com > add it to your Gmail contacts for yourself.
- You can either reply to this gmail message or send a new gmail to this odd looking address. However, You cannot send it from another email provider (e.g. yahoo) at this time.

Note: When you reply or send gmail to your Google number, anything in the subject line will not appear in your GV sms text message, and a line in the body of the message cannot be broken with a new line space or by typing enter for a new paragraph.
 
Thanks for the suggestion @Probird79... I've gone down that trail in the past (and actually just tried it again to see if it's been re-enabled) but, Google has apparently stopped that email-to-text backdoor.

If sent from my gmail account to the unique string, I get no error on the email, but also nothing shows up in GV inbox.
 
Looks like USB fax modems run around $10 to $20 on Amazon. You could have a distinctive ringtone to alert you. Would be great if a smart phone could launch a default app based on a listed contact calling in!
 
@erkme73 you know something... I use GV just for my voicemail. I began to use GV for the voicemail-to-text feature. At one point, a long time ago, it stopped working and I have never been able to figure out how to get it working again even after deleting and starting from scratch. I wonder if this is related??

I added a new line and set up that number in GV and the voicemail-to-text worked instantly. I thought it was odd and tried to get my other number to work again but it still didn't. I deleted everything and started from scratch again and now even the new line doesn't work after that. So now I have 2 lines that don't get voicemail-to-text which is the only reason I wanted GV. I still can get emails though.