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Author Topic: App Spotlight: Make Phone Calls With Your Nexus 7 Tablet With 'Groove IP'  (Read 6853 times)

Offline Babyfacemagee

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One of the 'secret' capabilities of the Nexus 7 that many owners aren't aware of is that with a little work their tablets can have the ability to make phone calls.  Now to be sure you can't just dial someone on your Nexus 7 out of the box and expect it to work and it's true the Nexus 7 doesn't have cellular 3G/4G/LTE ability like our cell phones.  But with a Wifi connectoin, a Google Voice account and a free piece of software like 'Groove IP' by snrb Labs, you can make perfectly usable phone calls over VOIP (Voice Over IP).   These calls will work for any phone number in the U.S. and Canada and are free (international there's a small fee) and while it might not suffice for being your only phone...it's a great way to save the minutes on your regular cell phone for those times when you're away form a Wifi connection and need those cellular minutes. 


Quote
Features:
Voice without Minutes!
-A single number that rings you anywhere
-Online voicemail--transcribed messages delivered to your inbox
-Free calls within US and Canada, and super low rates everywhere else
-The ability to send incoming call to voicemail
-Incoming call recording
-And many, many more...

The paid version includes these upgrades:
- Calls over a mobile data connection not just WiFi
- Native dialer integration
- Proximity sensor support
- Change sign in status or sign in invisible

Groove IP gets fairly consistent 4 and 5 star ratings among Nexus 7 owners in user reviews on Google Play:
Paul - July 24, 2012 - Asus Nexus 7 with version 1.0.5
My Nexus 7 is now a phone - Thanks!
App works great on my new N-7. Calls sound fine over wi-fi and when my tablet is tethered to my smart phone. I have grandfathered unlimited data w/450 voice mins and no text plan on my phone. Will be installing this on the phone too!

michael - July 22, 2012 - Asus Nexus 7 with version 1.0.5
Works great on Nexus 7.

Lionel - August 11, 2012 - Asus Nexus 7 with version 1.0.6
Very convenient
Makes it extremely easy to manage GV call forwarding options.


Now to be sure there are some tradeoffs when using Groove IP.   Some users find there is a slight delay or lag between sides of the conversation and this will be more or less depending on the speed of your internet connection.  The voice quality can also vary depending on a bunch of factors, although generally it seems users find the voice quality better than competing programs like 'Skype'.   Now there's a paid version which goes for $4.99 and it removes ads, enables the ability to use Groove IP over a mobile data connection (if you want to use it on your cell phone for instance) as well as adds some features like proximity sensor support, native dialer integration and 'change status to invisible' options. 

As we mentioned above in order to set up Groove IP to work as a phone you'll need to have a 'Google Voice' account and associate it with either a 'Google Apps' or 'Gmail' account.  You'll also need to foward all 'Google Voice' calls to 'Google Chat'.  Some other great features of 'Groove IP' include a number of voicemail and transcribe message options, the ability to have one number that rings you anywhere,  as well as cool features like 'speaker phone' which is something that competitors like 'Skype' don't offer.  The developer has a dedicated 'Groove IP' website where you'll find tons of more information as well as tech help to help make 'Groove IP' work optimally on your device.  I'd encourage those that want to give it a try to test out the free version at the link below.    Let us know how you like it in the comments. 




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Offline snrb labs

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Hi,

We're the developers of GrooVe IP.  If anyone has any questions about the app please feel free to ask us.  Thanks for featuring our app!

Offline Babyfacemagee

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Thanks for stopping by!  I'm sure some members will give this a try over the next few days.
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Offline budman

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Can you suggest a non-bluetooth headset?

Offline radiocycle

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There's lots of other VOIP apps out there but I like that this one is open source.  Seems to work well!

radio
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Offline bjs229

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Re: App Spotlight: Make Phone Calls With Your Nexus 7 Tablet With 'Groove IP'
« Reply #5 on: November 09, 2012, 01:14:15 PM »
I just started using this app last night. I need to find the best solution as far as a headset goes. It is tough to just use the Nexus naked as it is nearly impossible for me to have a normal conversation. My other party said there was echo and lag. I really am hoping that I can get this to function as designed so I can dump my cell phone and just use a Hotspot.

Offline snrb labs

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Re: App Spotlight: Make Phone Calls With Your Nexus 7 Tablet With 'Groove IP'
« Reply #6 on: November 09, 2012, 09:40:43 PM »
I just started using this app last night. I need to find the best solution as far as a headset goes. It is tough to just use the Nexus naked as it is nearly impossible for me to have a normal conversation. My other party said there was echo and lag. I really am hoping that I can get this to function as designed so I can dump my cell phone and just use a Hotspot.

Two settings I'd recommend setting would be Keep Screen Alive from under troubleshooting and the Basic Echo Canceler from under the audio/echo settings.  The nexus 7 by default puts wifi into a power saving state when the screen is off.  Keep Screen Alive would prevent that.  And to remove echo the Basic Echo Canceler should help.

Offline bjs229

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Re: App Spotlight: Make Phone Calls With Your Nexus 7 Tablet With 'Groove IP'
« Reply #7 on: November 10, 2012, 12:07:24 AM »
I really appreciate the help. It's nice when developers stay in touch with the pulse of the community. That means a lot. I will post my results. Now what do you suggest as a headset. I actually saw an old school looking phone receiver that was really cool. I have had Motorola, planet... Jawbone etc and they all seem to not fit or give me a problem volume wise or latency wise..

Offline bjs229

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Re: App Spotlight: Make Phone Calls With Your Nexus 7 Tablet With 'Groove IP'
« Reply #8 on: November 14, 2012, 10:30:33 PM »
Having problems signing in with 4.2. I tried a reinstall and reboot. No luck.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Tsarli

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Re: App Spotlight: Make Phone Calls With Your Nexus 7 Tablet With 'Groove IP'
« Reply #9 on: November 14, 2012, 11:14:41 PM »
Tested it with my Google Voice account. So far it works great! Have to give some thought about a headset though.  For now I'll probably just use regular earbuds and bring the Nexus' mic near my mouth. Not the most elegant of solutions I know.

Offline bjs229

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Re: App Spotlight: Make Phone Calls With Your Nexus 7 Tablet With 'Groove IP'
« Reply #10 on: November 15, 2012, 11:43:20 AM »
I think I figured out settings that are working pretty well. I am using basic echo cancel and set the echo tail at 100-300ms. Using a Big Jambox at home and a little Jambox when needing something portable. I love using my Nexus to run a speaker for music and video. With that in mind, I ran into an issue when shopping for headsets. Stupid of me, I wasn't aware that you couldn't have two paired devices running at the same time. So I couldn't play music thru a bluetooth speaker and use a bluetooth headset at the same time. The Jambox does both but it isn't as practical as an ear piece for making and receiving calls. I feel like I am taking the long way home on this one.

Sent from my Nexus 7

 


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