google voice / talkatone question

[mathman]

I followed a recommendation in IP Daley Superguide and have been happy with the combination of Ting, google voice, and talkatone for about one month.

Today I received the following when trying to text message to my spouse via Talkatone: "google returned error: resource-constraint SMS_ERROR_1: Free message to mobile number XXX-XXX-XXXX reached limit".  I can still text other people, just not my spouse. Restarting phone and clearing message history did not help.

Does anyone have further information on this error?  Google searches and Talkatone knowledge-base were unproductive. Thank you.

[iamlindoro]

My hypothesis would be this is Talkatone displaying the raw Google Voice error message rather than the localized/user facing message.  Try sending her the text from the Google Voice web site, which should give you a better error message to work with.

https://support.google.com/voice/answer/115116?hl=en

To prevent abuse, there are limits to the number of text messages you can send from Google Voice. If you've reached the limits, you will see a message that says 'Your message was not sent because the text message limit was reached. Please try again later or try sending to fewer contacts.' You'll have to send to fewer people, or try sending your text message at a later time.

It may be that you see the above from actual GV.  Out curiosity, do you send what other people might consider an absurd amount of texts to your spouse?  I send a ton to my SO, but have never hit a limit.

[mathman]

Thanks for your reply and thoughts.

I was able to successfully send a text message to her via google voice website on my account.  No error.  Yet the error persists when trying again on my phone via talkatone.

I don't text too much.  Maybe ten times per day or so.  She texts way more than I do to many more people.

I tried to perform a test text on the phone's browser, but google seems to understand I'm trying to access the web interface on a phone and says to access the google voice website on a desktop computer.  So it seems I can't easily determine if it's a talkatone issue or a phone issue or what.

A few details. We are both in the US, using Samsung phones.

[iamlindoro]

In that case I would suspect that Google throttles the API in use by Talkatone, and either bypasses or limits to a higher number the transactions through the site.  The interesting question will be what is the period on that limit... 24 hours, a week, a month...

I do know that Google's SMS APIs are non-public and they strongly discourage their use by apps like Talkatone, but that to date they've been ok with it.

Have you installed Google Voice for Android and tried using that to text?  It might be a workaround/longer term solution.

I suppose it's also worth asking whether you're using Google Voice as your primary number, or simply using it to make outbound calls when on wifi.

[arebelspy]

Have you done all the usual reboot phone, delete app and reinstall, etc.?

[mathman]

I had previously tried rebooting without luck.  Then I uninstalled Talkatone, restarted phone, and then reinstalled Talkatone.  Now it seems to work.

Thanks for the suggestions, both!  This is all fascinating to learn about.  Take care.

[arebelspy]

Neat. Yay for simple fixes.

[YK-Phil]

Since we are on the subject, I was able to use Talkatone from y iPhone to call from Hong Kong, France, Germany, to Canada, which I did not know was possible. It seems to work as long as your gmail account has been activated from a Canadian or US IP address. Anyone knows if it works from other countries?

[Daley]

Do be aware that Google Voice is dropping XMPP support in May 2014, and Talkatone will lose support consequently.