Mar 12, 2019
Voice no longer connected to Google Contacts
This problem with Contacts to Google Voice has devastated me!
I don't see any settings (within Contacts or Voice) to connect the two.
I'm
anchored to Google products. Been with you from the ground up, about
10yrs. I have 1000's of Google contacts, but also using Google Voice on
my hand-set phone that I can walk around the house multi-tasking. Being stuck
with Hangouts for the past 3 weeks is driving me bonkers.
>> If
anyone cares, my F*d up solution has been to click on the contact, then use copy/paste the number
from the Hangouts window, pasting it into a Google Voice 'make a new
call' box. But it takes about 6 clicks & tabs to do this, so it's
really not a viable solution. So if this can't be fixed, or will even
be getting worse, I've got to go elsewhere *sigh*
PLEASE HELP! 
Thanks for sharing your solutions with us.
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Last edited Mar 12, 2019
Hi Elizabeth D: thanks for posting in the Google Voice Community forum.
That feature was originally not working reliably with the old Google Voice/Google Chat system, which was shut down. Google updated the "call a contact" feature to use Hangouts instead. Unfortunately, they have not yet integrated the new Google Voice platform with Contacts.
Feel free to submit your issue by clicking the Feedback link on the Google Voice website. Thanks,
Original Poster Elizabeth D marked this as an answer
Zanzibar and I just confirmed with our contact on the Google Voice team, that this is working exactly as designed. Google Voice can only search your contacts by what is in the two contact name fields, not by company name, which is just an information field in the contact, just as is the street address or notes.
So: if you want this to work, please enter the person or company name in the name fields. This is the only way to accomplish what you want.
If you are unhappy with this, then feel free to submit feedback to Google, by clicking the "feedback" link on the Google Voice website. https://voice.google.com/settings
Note that Google employees do not routinely read this forum, nor does Google use this forum for user feedback.
Diamond Product Expert Bluescat recommended this
You do not need to use Hangouts any more, to place calls. The feature is built right into Google Voice.
- Use your computer, running either Google Chrome Browser or Firefox. Go here: https://voice.google.com/calls
- Click "Make a call"
- Start typing the first few characters of your contact's name. In my screenshot example below, Alaska Airlines is in my Google Contacts, and I want to call them, so I start typing: "ala..." Google Voice uses your Google Contacts to search for the contact. Searching also works on other fields in that contact, such as the area code and prefix.
- Google Contacts finds Alaska Airlines. Simply click on it to make that call.
If you can't figure out how to follow these steps, then explain what you are trying, and what happens.
Last edited May 3, 2019
Diamond Product Expert Bluescat recommended this
Hi:
This is an old/obsolete discussion thread. The Google Voice web User Interface (UI) was recently updated (without telling anyone). The "make a call" button was removed, since it was redundant.
You can now make calls by following the instructions on this help page:
Note that you may need to hide the large right-side keypad to see the search results. Click the 'hide keypad" thing at the lower right corner of the page.
Diamond Product Expert Bluescat recommended this
All Replies (46)
Actually Jorge, I have been using my contacts the exact way they were meant to be used. If I have a person named John Smith, who works for ABC Electronics, then I put John Smith in the First/Last name fields, then put ABC Electronics in the Company field, which is just extra information. When I want to call John, I search for John. If I want the main number for ABC Electronics, I put ABC as First name, and Electronics as Last name as a separate contact.
This is the way it was designed to be used. No one should store a contact that has no name, and only has extra information.
Just my two cents, because you claim I use my contacts wrong. My way works. Does yours?
Last edited May 5, 2019
May 5, 2019
Sorry Zanzibar, but yours is NOT the way Google Contacts ever worked before, and nor other Contact data base has either.
You've created a work around for the lame way that Google Voice is now configured, but yours is NOT the system business professionals use.
There are plenty of cases where a contact will not have a persons name.
The airline is an example. Or, an online business like Groupon. Why would you put a name when there is none?
Example, I have a contact with the Company name:
Groupon
A customer service phone # (which sadly does not connect to the new GV)
A URL to the website (which connects just fine to my browser)
A few notes about my account number, maybe some notes about my last purchases
..... and up until the NEW & IMPROVED versions of Contacts &GV, the Google products worked perfectly to standard professional business practices.
For your information Zanibar, there is NO PROFESSIONAL CONTACT DATABASE, or business school which would instruct the user to place a company name within the 'First & Last Name' fields. And since there is a chance we may someday need to port our Contacts database over to another platform, we don't want the fields all messed-up, filled with the wrong information.
While Google Contacts really doesn't connect to anything else that is business related (you can't add the address or other information to a Google Doc or Form), in MOST wordprocessing/contacts apps you can. And, while we can't do professional wordprocessing on Google platforms, if you ever migrate your contacts data over to one that can provide those options, you don't want your Google contacts to make a mess of the new platform.
Last edited May 5, 2019
May 5, 2019
I just simply do not know how to respond to somebody who is trying to convince themselves that putting a Company name in a First Name/Last Name field database is actually the correct way of doing it.
If you cannot see the absurdity of your statement as being completely illogical, there is nothing else I can do.
And, yes, my system of putting Companies in the Company field has worked in every contact manager I have used since I started using computers in the late 70s. It is only NOW, in Google Voice's implementation of how to bring contacts over from Google Contacts that a problem has surfaced which has forced me to put Company names in the First Name field.
I guess I had been doing it wrong for 30+ years, and it took Google Voice to show me the error of my ways?
I have PLENTY of companies that I do not have (nor need) individual names for. American Airlines? I don't know anybody specific there. I don't have a named person I need to call. I just want the company and their number. Use the company field.
Telling me that I need to put the Company name in the First Name field so it will show in Google Voice? Sure, its silly, but if that is how the product currently works, I will work withing its limits so I can use it.
Telling me that the Company name should ALWAYS go in the First/Last name and that is is the CORRECT way to do it?
You're kidding right...
Well, I respectfully disagree. When I make a phone call, then tap to add the number to Contacts. It doesn't give an option for "Business Name" it only gives the option for "Name". Then it automatically populates the First/Last name fields.
Searching for an ancillary field such as "Company" would be like searching the ancillary field "Address". Then when you do a search for "Avenue" it would bring up every contact who has the word "Avenue" in their address. I have a contact business named "The Avenue", and that would be the only one I would want searched.
Use your contacts however you want, but I disagree that you should store a contact "name" in an ancillary field.
If you seriously want to search ancillary fields, I suggest you provide feedback to the Google Voice engineers using the feedback mechanism available on both the website, and within the app. The way to do so is posted in Bluescat's recommended answer above. Then you can search for "Avenue" to find who lives on 1st Avenue, Tate Avenue, or Smith Avenue all at the same time. You'd probably get about 500 or more results.