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My son just got his first phone, and since mine is paid off, I figure it's a good time to leave my folks' Verizon family plan and start a new Fi group plan. I didn't realize until I started signing up for Fi that it was so tied to GV, and I'd like to run my game plan past this thread before I do anything stupid: My son's phone is unlocked and has no number of its own. I have a GV account with a  number that includes my son's name. I got it a while back with the intention of passing it off to him someday and don't use it much--mostly school-related texts. I'd like to transfer it to him to be his phone number under Fi; he wouldn't need a separate GV number, so I think we're okay there.Meanwhile, I'd still like my own GV number, so I intend to sign up for one using my second, more work-oriented Google account (which is mostly used for Gmail) and keep using that for school texts, etc. It should be pretty painless apart from directing people to use the new number. (And any stragglers would just wind up at my son's phone.) Then I would port my existing number from Verizon to my current phone; ideally, this part should feel no different than switching to AT&T or T-Mobile or what have you in terms of my phone retaining the same number, but with a different carrier. In the end, my son would have his phone with a personalized number, I'd have my phone with my same number, and I'd have a new GV account unattached to either phone to catch stray texts. Does that sound right? Thanks in advance for your help.
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Mar 23, 2020 13:07
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 20:06 |
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Rexxed posted:That's similar to my setup (except for not having a child). I have google voice tied to one of my google accounts and Fi to a different one. The only downside to that setup is that you can't use the Google Fi number as the google voice cell phone number to be tied to. It still gives me notifications for texts and calls via the google voice app on the phone, though, so it's not a huge deal. I have a third number that I've just been using Ting for because it usually gets a couple of texts a month and I rarely leave the house with it, so it's typically 3 or 6 bucks, but the second line on Fi makes more sense for full usage. That reminds me: I imagine Fi voicemail is pretty similar or even identical to GV; I've been using GV as my VM handler for ages now, rather than the default Verizon app. Removing my number from Verizon and registering it with Google directly should eliminate the middleman and make that part of it a seamless transition. (I don't use my cellphone for voice calls much, but that doesn't stop people who don't know any better from calling and leaving a message. Same goes for texts, actually--hence the GV account keeping all that at a remove.)
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Mar 24, 2020 02:40
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I mostly use Play Music (at least on my tablet) for the mood/decade/activity/whatever playlists, a feature I used on a different app, now defunct after Google bought the company and rolled the feature into Play Music. Where are those playlists going to go?  Play Music is also my default player for MP3s on my phone. I don't care about streaming music (apart from the curated stuff mentioned above) or recommendations, really, so should I even bother with YT Music? I didn't use Spotify for long, but it felt like it did nothing for me. eta: Okay, the curated stuff is still there. I pulled in all my MP3s and tried to make a playlist. No, not a YouTube playlist; one with my local files. I added the first song and it threw an error. Great. Hirayuki fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Jul 23, 2020 |
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Jul 23, 2020 18:07
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Is anyone else getting a string of mystery characters appended to every incoming text? Like this:quote:Great! See you soon!
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Sep 13, 2020 22:04
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Apparently it has to do with using a non-Google phone--an S9, in my case--and can be avoided by using Hangouts for texts. :/ I tried that, and I am not a fan. I'd rather have the random text strings. Some sources say it means the Fi porting process was incomplete, whatever that means; it doesn't seem to be the case here.
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Sep 14, 2020 23:57
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Is anyone else having problems creating playlists in YouTube Music? I get "An error has occurred" with every local file I add. It doesn't help that there are two kinds of playlists, apparently? I just want to shuffle through a subset of my local files. I'm too old for this.
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Oct 22, 2020 13:16
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But do any of these let you use SA smilies?
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Oct 23, 2020 01:09
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a mysterious cloak posted:Anybody using a third party app for music? I use it in the car and stream to a speaker at home all the time. I uninstalled YT Music when I realized I couldn't turn the loving screen off when listening to their curated, themed playlists anymore--because they were all videos now, natch. AccuRadio fills that niche for me now.
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Nov 26, 2020 03:47
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TITTIEKISSER69 posted:"I put my phone into airplane mode, then turn on WiFi."
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Nov 30, 2020 19:52
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Barely Fi-related, but: My mom bought my son a new S8 from Amazon this past spring, and while it was new and seems as legit as my husband's work-provided S8, it seems to have been from a different region. We've changed the assorted settings so he's on the U.S. Play Store and all that fun stuff, but the phone won't get any provider updates to security or, presumably, OS. When you check for updates, it essentially says "I don't even know what this phone is. Contact support." (We're both on Fi, chiefly using TMobile, who sends our OTA updates.) Is there any way to fix this beyond flashing a new OS onto the thing? I've done that plenty of times to my ancient Samsung tablet, so I'm not too leery of it, but it seems like it might be overkill. Maybe not.
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Dec 23, 2020 16:06
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I pay about $47 for me and my son both. It was no problem to put his new unlocked phone onto the plan or to port my paid-off phone over, though it was a little fiddly switching my existing Voice number to his phone. Neither of us use a lot of data, especially not now (he's hardly gone anywhere since he got his phone this spring, and I work at home even in the best of times), but the ability to switch to unlimited if/when necessary is very attractive. I look forward to being able to use my phone seamlessly and without having to lug around a pocket WiFi doodly the next time I'm on a big overseas trip (we usually have at least one a year), and to not worrying about data rates even while roaming in less exotic locales like Canada, our neighbor to the south. I don't care about a VPN or about Messages being anywhere but on my phone. Tl;dr: Fi is a good fit for me.
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Jan 2, 2021 20:38
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I still get a random string of alphanumeric characters appended to every text message I receive. No idea why or how to fix it. At least it's easy enough to ignore. (This only started happening with Fi.)
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Jan 20, 2021 14:43
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The Slack Lagoon posted:YTM is really bad and when GPM went away I switched to Spotify and haven't had any complaints.
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May 5, 2021 20:29
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Thanks for the detailed response--it really sounds like a pain in the rear end. :/ It's probably not much better than streaming/copying MP3s from an external drive like I've been doing, with backups in cloud storage for safekeeping (not streaming).
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May 6, 2021 14:43
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That sounds amazing! Now to wait for my HDD to come home from the shop so I have a nice chunk of MP3s to test this on. 
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May 7, 2021 14:17
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LRADIKAL posted:To update, I believe you need Plex pass to use plexamp, and I've heard that there are some bad issues with Android auto. Haven't tested that yet.
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May 7, 2021 17:39
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Have you tried from voice.google.com?
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May 26, 2021 22:54
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Going in completely the opposite direction size-wise...has anyone here spent much time around a Galaxy Z Flip 3? Fi is offering a deal on the Flip 3 5G that would work out to over five months of free service; my parents are well out of contract with Verizon, so I'm trying to get them to come to Fi (they'd pay half what they do now) with one of them taking my S9 (they have S5s, and the very newest models would be overkill) while I upgrade. e: Non-Fi related, but upgrading to a new phone is still just a matter of moving your current SIM into a new phone, right?  I could upgrade my husband's S8 to my S9, but the S8 was provided by his company back when the model was brand new; someone over there is still footing the bill for it, but no one knows who or what department or any goddamn thing. A stealth upgrade would be nice, if we could pull it off.
Hirayuki fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Nov 1, 2021 |
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Nov 1, 2021 14:00
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And Chat absolutely will not rotate for my landscape tablet.  How hard is that to implement?
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Jan 3, 2022 22:36
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I took my Fi phone out of the USA/Canada/Mexico region for the first time earlier this month and was pleased to see my bill was a tiny bit *less* than last month (and most months) without consciously trying to conserve data/minutes. This is on the pay-per-GB plan, so I'm pretty happy. I'd been eyeing the top-tier unlimited plan for my regular trips to Japan (and have had no opportunity to use it, of course), but it looks like I might not have to switch after all.
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Jul 28, 2022 18:43
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Bah, is Fi no longer accepting Galaxy S9s for trade if they're less than 256 GB? The 64- and 128 GB options weren't even available when I checked today.
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Oct 3, 2022 02:48
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I finally upgraded (to an S22 Ultra) and, incidentally, switched to the full unlimited plan for the month in anticipation of a trip to Japan (leaving tomorrow). I've started getting notifications that my mobile connection has no Internet, which is awful timing. Is there a fix for this? Should I manually change networks or something? This is my first Made For Fi phone, so I'm clueless. Thanks.
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Nov 30, 2022 01:13
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Javid posted:I'd start looking into local sims you can put in your phone, since fi support is going to 100% refuse to do poo poo if you're outside the US with a problem Thanks.
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Nov 30, 2022 01:24
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It's worked perfectly from the minute I touched down in Haneda, btw.  (but I'm pleased).
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Dec 10, 2022 00:57
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It's not your primary Fi phone number?
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Dec 30, 2023 04:16
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Admiral Joeslop posted:I haven't seen any places mention that. Would the Remove Person button do it? I've got two people leaving the group but I'm still the primary and staying.
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Dec 31, 2023 15:10
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That's crazy. Thanks for figuring it out, as opaque as it was.
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Dec 31, 2023 21:54
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