Obihai and Google Voice – the end

  • Important Message About Google Voice and Your OBi Device (Google Sets the Date for the End of XMPP with Google Voice)
  • Google Adds Voice to Hangouts, But Steps Backward On Interoperability And Federation By Reducing XMPP Support
  • Ending support for XMPP based calling with Google Voice
  • Nikhyl Singhal – Google+ – An update on Google Voice:
    • “So it has been known for a while the core of IM (which became Hangouts) has shifted from XMPP (with Jingle extensions in the case of GV) to WebRTC. So am I to understand correctly that despite being based on an(other) open standard, WebRTC, there won’t be enough details forthcoming to allow companies such as Obihai to release new firmware which “speaks” WebRTC instead of XMPP/Jingle?”
    • “the call and data routing is suboptimal, having to go through another routing point, but it’s not all that bad, I don’t think. IPKall on the west US coast, and Callcentric on the east coast, offer no cost DIDs to which you can forward your GV number(s). I don’t know about any in the central region. You say you’d be willing to pay; there are just a plethora of VOIP providers from which to choose for this, many for low rates. Follow the links in the Obihai blog post. All you have to do is use the SIP options instead of the Google Voice options on your OBi(s).

      I use IPKall and an OBi110 personally, all they require is at least 1 call per month(?) to keep the DID active. The only problem for me with them is the delay going coast-to-coast is significant (I’m in the Buffalo, NY area), so I’m looking into Callcentric. The other fly in the ointment would be dialing would not be as automatic; unless you want your VOIP number to be the Caller-ID number, it would involve either using a Web browser (to “dial” with the Contacts Web app for example), or dialing your GV #, entering your PIN, then the number you’re dialing (although fiddling with the digit maps might automate this somewhat). On the plus side, for arguably small amounts of money per month ($1.50 or thereabouts for Callcentric), you’ll have E911, so less worries there.”
  • Hangouts Move Toward WebRTC with HD Calling Among 18 New Google+ Updates
    • “Google Hangouts made the switch from H.264 to VP8 earlier this year, which enables the HD calling and plugin-free communications. When the company launched the video chat platform two years ago, it hinted at plans to utilize WebRTC for Hangouts. The move to making HD Hangouts available to all users across all devices is a part of a bigger shift for the company toward the VP8 codec and WebRTC.”
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