Hello, I am a Skype refugee. I just ported my US Skype number to VoIP.ms and installed Zoiper on my Android phone.
Zoiper works very well for outgoing calls, in fact, better than Skype, so far. The setup was complicated for a non-telecom techie, but I found my way through it. However, I have free calls to the US through my Italian cell phone provider, so I would rarely use VoIP.ms for this purpose.
My main need is to receive calls and texts made to my US DID number, because my US bank and other American services have that number.
I don’t know how I’m supposed to receive calls and texts. I assumed they would come through Zoiper, but, if so, I’ve set up something wrong. When someone calls from the US, they get a dial tone and a disconnect. If they send an SMS, nothing.
I saw somewhere that I could have all incoming calls forwarded to my call phone, which would be fine; that’s what I did with Skype. But I can’t see how to do it.
If I forward all incoming calls, would incoming SMS also be forwarded?
I have been using Zoiper for years. In short, to receive calls without issues, you need to buy their service for push notifications. Otherwise you will never have reliable service.
I went with Groundwire which costs peanuts (and a one-time small fee) compared to a recurrent expensive monthly service with Zoiper.
You need push service and it comes with Groundwire.
For SMS, you must configure your account to forward SMS to the desired extension. Your application must support it. Groundwire does. It works.
Since I use an Android phone, I prefer to use the Voip.ms SMS app because it uses the API and I can have the full history of all SMS, whether I use the web interface, emails or any device. If you use Groudwire (or any other softphone), the SMS will be local to that device only. (Which makes sense as SMS are working like that.) But it works with Groundwire.
Yeah, you have to pay a little bit for Groundwire (only once) but frankly, it will not only save you a lot of headaches, but give you a very nice experience. I do not regret a single penny spent on Groundwire. And with Google Play, if you activate the “Family” play store thing, you can install it for free on other devices of family members. Which is nice!
For instructions for Groundwire, SMS, push notification (and use call encryption, to make your life easier too) it is there:
I also ported in my Skype number. I am using Groundwire and at first messaging wasn’t working. But I discussed the problem with Groundwire support and they told me to turn on SIMPLE for messaging in account settings.
Now I can send and receive messages from the two DIDs I have: my ported in Skype number and a test number I started with which is a nice number so I kept it.
My current issue is why does it take so long for messages to arrive? Sending messages to other phone numbers arrive immediately at those devices. But sending a message to a VoIP.ms DID always takes about 40 seconds to arrive.
I talked to support and they just said it has to do with the “upward carrier” or something like that. Can that be improved?
As for speed, I also have a delay, but it does not look that long. But I am using Voip.ms SMS application, so there is the push notification and infrastructure delay, so I do not know as for direct integration with Groundwire.
If you have android, try Voip.ms SMS app and enable notifications. So you will see the delay between using the API and the direct SMS to Groundwire. If both arrive more or less at the same time, and still 40 seconds late, it is either a problem with the carrier in charge to send the SMS to voip.ms, or voip.ms treatment delays. (But they seem to imply that on their side it should be instantaneous.)
In fact, I only use voip.ms SMS. It is better for my use because I use SMS on multiple avenues to send and reply to SMS (by email, web portal, on mobile phones), and the app gives me a unified view, whatever means I used to send the SMS.
Your test with the portal is even simpler than what I suggested. The result is clear. It is either the voip.ms or the carrier that has a delay with processing the SMS. Now, only voip.ms can tell what is going on. If this delay is only experienced with voip.ms, then it might be an issue somewhere with their providers, or the carrier in relation to them, etc. Only them can tell, I guess.
When I chatted with VoIP.ms support they blamed the carrier. It is definitely only happening with SMS to them. I can SMS to and from non-VoIP.ms numbers and the messages are sent and received instantly in both directions.
And when I send from VoIP.ms to an external number it is received on the other end immediately.
Only when I send a message to a VoIP.ms number is there that long delay.
It’s not a deal breaker. But it’s a bit bothersome that they don’t seem interested in resolving the problem.
Incoming and outgoing SMS messages from VoIP.ms to VoIP.ms should not experience any delays, as this is not typical behavior. It is important to note that if you have the SMS message center page open, there may be a delay in indicating the receipt of a new message. This delay is not attributable to the message itself, but rather to the periodic refresh of the page, which does not occur with every incoming message.
If you are experiencing a delay in a different manner, please do not hesitate to provide me with the relevant information via private message, so that I may verify it with the support team.
I just did another test from an external number to one of the VoIP.ms numbers. I timed it, and it took 49 seconds for the text to arrive in Groundwire.
Then I replied and the message send from Groundwire immediately arrived at the external number.
While not a “deal breaker” there does seem to be an annoying problem with it taking an excessively long amount of time for texts to arrive at VoIP.ms numbers.
Chat support blamed the upward carrier and said there was nothing VoIP.ms could do about it. But I hope somebody at least tried to improve it. It’s only with VoIP.ms that I experience this.
Thank you for the information, as mentioned earlier, If you are experiencing a delay in a different manner, please do not hesitate to provide me with the relevant information via private message, so that I may verify it with the support team, ill be glad to assist.
Do you have a “Messages” section with “Inbox” on the left side bar of the screen?
If you click on “Inbox”, do you have the possibility to write a new message? If you, you can probably put William’s handle to send him a message.
If you see none of that, maybe it is something unlocked after you do the “Bot tutorial”? It is far in my memory, but I remember having done the tutorials and in kind of changed something. Anyways.
This problem went away after I got an email saying that my level had been upped. After that I could see the messages and I could also create new topics.
So it was apparently a spam-protection feature to deal with new users, which is a reasonable idea.
